


The Taming of the Shadow

by cowardlydragon



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Antisocial Personality Disorder, Gen, Platonic Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-22
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2019-02-02 19:38:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 24,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12732984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cowardlydragon/pseuds/cowardlydragon
Summary: What would've happened if Ryou hadn't been barred from entering the Memory World? "Come home with me," Ryou pleaded. "I'll forgive you for everything if you would just give up on summoning Zorc and come home with me." Ryou redeems Bakura with the power of love. Platonic tendershipping. ASPD Bakura and implied ASD/ADD Ryou.





	1. The Evil Shadow

In a deeper part of the Domino Museum, there was a giant Stone Slab with the Name Pharaoh’s face on it. When Yami Yugi presented the God Cards to the Stone Slab, he had been sucked into the World of Memories, and now it was up to his friends to find him.

The normal Yugi, Jounouchi, Anzu, Honda, and Ryou watched in awe as Bobasa reached into his jacket and pulled out the Millennium Key.

“The entrance to the World of Memory is in Yugi’s soul,” said Bobasa. “The Millennium Key grants the power to enter a person’s soul. With its power, we can enter Yugi’s soul! And, faith willing, we will find the true door in the labyrinth within! And beyond it, the World of the Pharaoh’s Memories!”

“Go into Yugi’s soul?! You can do that?!” Honda said, flabbergasted.

“Let’s do it! Let’s find that door!” Anzu shouted.

“Aww right!” said Jounouchi.

“But first, before we begin, I will choose who can enter Yugi’s soul.” Bobasa reached into his flesh and pulled out another Millennium Item. “The Millennium Scales! I will touch this scale to your heart! If your soul contains any evil or deception, the scale will tilt! That person cannot enter!”

“What, you don’t trust us?” Jounouchi said, offended.

“Jounouchi’s a pervert! Of course it’s gonna tilt!” Honda said.

“It’s not a matter of whether I trust you,” said Bobasa. “Those with evil hearts may be trapped in his soul. It is for your own good that I do this now.” One by one, he held the Scales up against the hearts of Yugi’s friends. “Anzu is okay, Jounouchi is okay, Honda is okay…” However when he got to Ryou, the Scales began to tilt.

“Wha…? Why me?!” Ryou stammered.

“Oh no! Bakura!” Yugi and the others said with a mix of confusion and concern.

“Bakura, I’m sorry but you cannot enter,” said Bobasa.

“But I want to find Yugi too!” Ryou protested, rubbing the back of his head.

“Bakura’s our friend!” Jounouchi insisted.

But Bobasa was adamant. “No good! You must leave here immediately!” he said.

 _The Millennium Scale senses an evil shadow in this young man’s soul,_ Bobasa thought to himself. _Could it be that this is the young man who holds the Millennium Ring?_

“Well, I guess that’s it then. I’ll go home,” Ryou said, on the verge of tears. “But you guys have to find Yugi and bring him back! Bye guys, see you later.”

Ryou turned around and started to run away, but then all of a sudden Yugi cried out, “Wait Bakura! Don’t go!”

Ryou stopped but didn’t turn around just yet.

“I don’t think it’s _you_ who’s making the Millennium Scales tilt,” Yugi continued. “It must be…that _thing_ you’re wearing.”

Ryou turned towards Yugi and nodded. Now was as good as anytime to tell everybody the truth. “I’m afraid I haven’t been completely truthful towards you all,” Ryou said as he unbuttoned his school uniform. Once it was completely unbuttoned, he revealed that he had been wearing the Millennium Ring all along.

Jounouchi, Anzu, and Honda let out a collective gasp.

“Why are you wearing that?!” Jounouchi shouted.

“Please don’t be alarmed,” Ryou said, trying to make his voice as soothing as possible. “Nobody made me wear it. I willingly put it on.”

 _“What!?”_ Jounouchi, Honda, and Anzu all shouted together.

“Now, I know you’re probably worried about the Spirit of the Ring taking control of me,” Ryou said, “but there’s nothing to be scared of! He’s not the same person he was when you first met him. He’s changed! I know he looks evil on the outside, but on the inside he’s very friendly and nice!”

After a moment of stunned silence, Honda leaned towards Jounouchi and Anzu and whispered, _“The good Bakura just called the evil Bakura ‘friendly and ‘nice.’ What do you think this means?”_

 _“Maybe he’s playing a prank,”_ Jounouchi whispered back.

 _“Or maybe…it’s Stockholm syndrome,”_ Anzu said.

“I’m not kidding!” Ryou insisted. “He helped retrieve the God Cards last night when they were stolen. Isn’t that right, Yugi?” he said with a pleading look in Yugi’s direction.

“It’s true. I would’ve lost my cards if it weren’t for him,” Yugi said.

Ryou beamed with delight. It was such a relief that Yugi had taken his side. “I’m very sorry for not telling you guys sooner.”

“I think I know what’s going on here,” Jounouchi said with a stern glare.

“You do?” Ryou said hopefully.

“Yeah! The evil guy in the Ring is forcing you to say these things!” Jounouchi yelled out an accusation.

“That dirty little – “ Honda growled.

“Leave Bakura alone! Get out of him!” Anzu shouted.

Ryou sighed in disappointment. He didn’t think that convincing his friends would be this difficult. “No, you have it all wrong. I’m free to take it off whenever I like.” To demonstrate, he took off the Ring and waved it in the air in front of him. “See? I’m wearing it because I want to.”

There was another stunned silence, and then Honda leaned over and whispered, _“I think Stockholm syndrome is more likely.”_

Anzu and Jounouchi nodded in agreement.

“Come on guys, you have to believe me! He’s totally tame! Look!” Ryou took several steps closer to his friends with the Ring held out in front of him, and the three of them recoiled in fear.

“GAH! Stay away!” Jounouchi shrieked, taking several steps backwards.

“Yugi, can you tell us what’s going on?” said Anzu, also backing up.

“Do something, Yugi! Take that thing away from him!” Honda shouted.

“Yugi, help me out here! Tell them that the Spirit of the Ring isn’t a threat!” Ryou said at almost the same time as everybody else.

“ENOUGH! EVERYONE CALM DOWN!” Yugi shouted. Once he had everybody’s full attention, he said, “We’ll let the Scales decide.”

“The Scales?” all of Yugi’s friends repeated.

“The Millennium Scales detect both evil _and_ deception,” Yugi explained. “In other words, they function like a lie detector. If we use them on Bakura, we can see if he’s telling the truth about the Spirit of the Ring turning good.”

“Great idea Yugi!” said Honda and Jounouchi at the same time.

With Bobasa’s permission, Yugi took the Scales and held them in front of Ryou. Unsurprisingly, the Scales did not tilt when Ryou wasn’t wearing the Ring. “Are you absolutely certain that the Ring Spirit is no longer evil?” Yugi questioned.

“Definitely!” Ryou beamed. “He’s one of the kindest people I’ve ever met!”

“What do you think of the Ring Spirit?” Yugi asked.

“He’s my friend! And I love living with him!” Ryou said cheerfully.

The Millennium Scales did not tilt, which meant that Ryou was telling the truth.

“That’s very difficult to believe,” Jounouchi said, scratching his head.

“Wait don’t put it on again!” Honda suddenly shouted.

Ryou put the Ring on and rebuttoned his school uniform. This time when he wore the Ring, it was on the outside of his clothes. “It’s fine, there’s nothing to worry about,” Ryou said brightly.

“But how would you explain why the Scales tilted the first time?” Jounouchi questioned.

“I think I know.” Ryou took the Millennium Scales out of his friend’s hand and held it against Yugi’s heart. To everyone’s surprise, the scales tilted.

“Wha…?! How?!” Jounouchi, Honda, and Anzu cried out simultaneously.

“It’s the Millennium Puzzle,” Ryou explained. “All of the Millennium Items have a source of evil inside them. We all know that Yugi has a good heart, which means it must be the Puzzle that’s causing the Scales to tilt.”

“Therefore it wasn’t you or the Ring Spirit causing the Scales to tilt, but the evil energy within Ring itself,” Yugi clarified.

“Exactly!” Ryou beamed.

“Very well, Bakura, you have proved your point. I will allow you to go into Yugi’s heart,” Bobasa said as he grabbed the Millennium Scales and tucked it into his flesh. “Now, everyone join hands and form a circle. Clear your minds!”

Everybody stood in a circle and began to hold hands.

 _Other Me, I promise we’ll find you no matter what!_ Yugi thought.

“Let it open! Let the way be made clear!” Bobasa said, brandishing the Millennium Key into the air. “Millennium Key! Lead us into the soul of the one chosen by the Millennium Puzzle!”

Yugi’s Puzzle emitted a bright flash of white light, and everyone’s minds were sucked inside.


	2. The Invisible Door

Deep inside the dark chambers of the Pharaoh's heart, there was a huge labyrinth of staircases and doors. It was here where our heroes lay unconscious on the floor. One by one they awoke, rubbing their eyes as they tried to get themselves oriented.

"Urrrgh…" Jounouchi groaned as he sat up, trying to make sense of his surroundings. Yugi sat up too, clutching at his head. "Hey Yugi," Jounouchi said, "Look at this! Where the heck are we?"

Yugi, Jounouchi, Anzu, and Ryou stared in wonder at the gigantic maze surrounding them. "This is the Other Me's 'Maze of the Soul,'" said Yugi.

"All this is Yugi's soul?" Jounouchi said in awe.

"That is so," said Bobasa, who seemingly popped out of nowhere. "We have entered the Room of the Pharaoh's Soul by the power of the Millennium Key."

"What th–!? Wh-where are we?1" Honda suddenly exclaimed, for it had taken him awhile to fully awaken.

"Then the true door is somewhere in here?" Jounouchi said, ignoring Honda's outburst.

"Yes," Bobasa nodded. "We must find the true door. It is the only way to leave this dimension!"

"WHAT?!" Jounouchi paled.

The five friends looked at their surroundings again. It was a huge maze, but they had to remain optimistic.

"So we gotta find it!" Jounouchi declared passionately.

"Let's find the true door!" Anzu agreed.

"It's on!" said Honda.

 _Wait for us, Other Me! We'll find the door and follow you to the World of Memories,_  Yugi thought.

 _Where's the Other Me? Why is he hiding from us?_  Ryou wondered.

The gang of friends plus Bobasa began walking down the corridor together. While they were walking, Honda began asking Ryou some questions.

"Let me get this straight," Honda said. "You've been wearing the Millennium Ring for  _how long?"_

"Since the second day of the Duelist Kingdom tournament," Ryou replied. "Remember when the Meiku brothers had us trapped, and the Other Me helped Yugi find the right door?"

"You mean the one who shouted at them and distracted them wasn't you, but  _him_?" Anzu said as her eyes widened with realization.

"That's right!" Ryou said happily. "And you remember when you got locked up in Pegasus's dungeon, and he helped break you out of there?" he said to Honda. "And afterwards, he helped us find Mokuba!"

"I  _knew_  you were acting strangely down there in the castle dungeons," Honda said with sudden comprehension.

"But what about all that stuff that happened during Battle City?" Jounouchi questioned. "Didn't he team up with the bad guys?"

"He was only  _pretending_  to be evil in order to trick Marik into handing over the Millennium Rod," Ryou explained. "In reality he was just trying to save Yugi's life! In fact, he was trying to save all of us!"

"That's really far-fetched," Jounouchi said. "Are you sure he's not lying about a couple of things?"

"What?! No way! He's too loyal!" Ryou said indignantly.

 _Is it true? Is the evil Bakura really not evil anymore?_  Jounouchi thought. But they would worry about that later. Right now they had more important matters to attend to.

"There are so many doors," said Anzu. "Which one is the true door? How can we tell?"

"We just have to open ALL of them!" Jounouchi declared.

"That's right!" said Honda.

"Awright! My sixth sense tells me it's  _this one_! Here I go!" Jounouchi said, charging at a random door.

BANG! Jounouchi kicked the door open, but as soon as he began running inside, he fell off the edge of the floor. "AACCK!" he squealed. He grabbed hold of the edge of the precipice and hung on for dear life. "Hey! Help me!"

To everyone's surprise, Jounouchi's voice echoed from a different part of the room. When they all looked up, he was hanging over the edge of another door several stories up.

"How did he get up  _there_?!" Anzu wondered.

Yugi and Bobasa quickly helped pull Jounouchi back through the door that he originally went through.

"Are you okay?" said Yugi.

"There are traps set behind each door. Do be careful!" Bobasa said.

"Why didn't you say so?!" Jounouchi said angrily.

"It's like a different dimension," Honda mused.

"It is far too dangerous to split up. If one were to become lost in the maze, one would never find the way out," said Bobasa.

"You hear that, Bakura! Don't go wondering off!" Honda reminded Ryou, for he knew how easy it was for the boy to get distracted and drift away.

"Ah…oops, my bad," Ryou said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. He had spaced out again and was just about to get lost right before Honda called out to him. He quickly turned around and rejoined the rest of the group.

"But it'll take forever to open all of the doors," Jounouchi said.

"Yugi…it's just a feeling but…I think  _you're_  the only one who can find the true door in this maze," said Anzu. "You have the same body…you're the one closest to the Other Yugi's soul."

"Yup," Yugi nodded.

 _I can't do anything,_  Anzu thought.  _I can only wander around the labyrinth of his soul. I'm sorry Yugi…_

"Bobasa, can I ask you something?" Yugi said.

"Why, yes," said Bobasa.

"We came here to find the Other me…to follow him to the World of Memory," said Yugi.

"That is correct."

"But if they're memories of the past, can we really have any effect on them? What if we get there and we can only watch, not do anything? We don't even know if the Other Me will be able to see us because we never existed in Ancient Egypt. We don't exist in his memories. We  _must_  have a role to play! Bobasa, when we get to that world, what are we supposed to do?"

"Your duty is to find the lost name of the Pharaoh," said Bobasa.

"You mean Yugi's real name?" Anzu said.

"When the Pharaoh sealed his soul into the Millennium Puzzle, his name vanished from his memories," said Bobasa. "None of the residents of the World of Memory, not even the Pharaoh himself, know his real name. It isn't even inscribed on the King-List in the temples."

"How can we find something that's not there?" Jounouchi questioned.

"Yeah, that's crazy!" said Honda.

"Even if it isn't in his memory, there's a chance that it's in his subconscious," said Bobasa. "The Pharaoh's lost name is the keyword to open the door to the afterworld. This journey is the last trial for the one who solved the Millennium Puzzle."

 _Where the heck is the Other Me?_  Ryou thought as he opened door after door, looking for the Ring Spirit.

Meanwhile, the Ring Spirit was hiding in the shadows inside one of the labyrinth's alleyways.  _So the final key is the Pharaoh's true name!_  he chuckled to himself. _Heh heh heh! Now all I have to do is wait for them to find the true door. Soon the power of the darkness will be mine once more!_

* * *

The search for the right door continued. Hours upon hours passed, and the gang of friends looked through hundreds of doors, all of which contained traps and monsters. Strangely enough, the more they searched the more doors seemed to appear, and the more complex the maze seemed to get.

"Hey, we've been here a long time," Honda said. "Will we ever get out of here?"

"My…my watch isn't moving!" Anzu suddenly exclaimed. "The hands stopped when we left the museum! No time has passed since then!"

"No way!" Jounouchi paled.

"Is this a dream?" Honda lamented exhaustedly. "Let's just keep…"

"Hold it," Jounouchi said. "Don't go that way."

Honda stared at Jounouchi questionably.

"I've been marking the doors with a magic marker so we know which ones we've tried," Jounouchi explained as he pointed towards a door that had a smiley face drawn on it with sharpie marker.

"Cool! Good idea man!" said Honda. "Just like a dog marks where he's been!"

"You're tagging someone's soul…?" Yugi said.

"We already went this way, and that means we're going around in circles!" Jounouchi said. He turned towards the sky and shouted "HEY YUGI! Can you hear us? We're in your soul right now! Give us a clue! Which one's the real door?!"

There was no response.

"Shouting won't help matters," Bobasa said. "We must find the door on our own."

Yugi felt a presence behind one of the doors. Before he knew it, he had unconsciously walked up to it.  _I wonder why,_ he thought,  _the closer I get to this door, the more my heart hurts._  He reached out and turned the doorknob, and it opened with a click. Behind it was a scene from the Duelist Kingdom tournament when Yami Yugi was dueling Kaiba.

"Yugi! Slit my throat with your card!" Kaiba was shouting.

 _I remember this!_  Yugi thought.  _This is the Duel with Kaiba on Pegasus's Island!_

"I'll do it!" Yami Yugi said.

 _No! Stop!_  Yugi shouted inside his head, but he couldn't do anything.

Jounouchi and Anzu realized Yugi's distress, so they quickly pulled him back and slammed the door shut. Yugi fell to his hands and knees, panting heavily.

"Yugi! Snap out of it!" said Jounouchi.

"That fight…" Yugi gasped. "It was hard on the Other Me. His most painful memories are hidden behind his door. The moment I opened it, my heart ached too."

"So he's blocking out the things he doesn't want to remember? Behind that door?" Jounouchi said.

"He swore never to open it again," Yugi said.

"Give me a break!" Jounouchi cursed. "He and Kaibe were different then! How long is he going to hold on to the past?" He kicked the door with all his might. "You have to get over that! You have to be strong! Come on! What do you think your friends are for? Stupid…"

"On the other hand, I bet  _you_  forget about anything inconvenient right away, don't you?" Honda said.

"Yugi's more sensitive," said Anzu.

"He's not thick-skinned as you!" Honda agreed.

"What's with you guys!?" Jounouchi growled. "Someday I'll show you the inside of my soul! It'll be wide open and bright!"

"Sounds like there's nothing there, like it's empty," said Honda.

"Sounds boring," Anzu agreed.

"WHAT?!" Jounouchi shouted angrily.

"I think it sounds cool!" said Ryou.

"See, Bakura gets it! You guys should be more like him," Jounouchi said.

" _But Bakura thinks_ everything _about you is cool, so his input hardly counts_ ," Honda whispered at Jounouchi so that Ryou couldn't hear.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" Jounouchi was indignant, and he began to fight with Honda while Anzu and Ryou tried to pry them apart.

"I was just thinking," Yugi said, and everyone stopped what they were doing to look at him, "at first I thought this maze was like a lost soul. I thought it showed the uncertainty the Other Me must have, not knowing which path he should take. But maybe it's the opposite? What if it's  _our_  souls being tested?"

The others stared at Yugi blankly.

"Did you guys notice?" Yugi continued. "No matter which doors we open, there's only traps or monsters or painful memories from the past. And the more we wander this maze, the more complex it gets, and the more doors there are."

"You're right! There's more doors than when we started!" said Anzu.

"I wonder if this maze reflects our hearts?" said Yugi. "The more we wander, the more we worry. And the more we worry, the more complicated the maze gets."

"But it's  _got_  to be the maze of the Other You!" said Anzu. "What about the memory of fighting Kaiba?"

"That was  _my_  memory!" said Yugi. "That was the uncertainty…the same I felt when the other me was dueling. I'll never forget what almost happened that day. That's when I figured it out."  _All of the doors we see are fakes,_  he thought. _The key to the true door is hidden somehow, somewhere!"_

All of a sudden, Yugi felt a presence behind one of the doors, which happened to have a smiley face marked on it.

"Guys! We have to focus on the reason we came here in the first place!" Yugi said. He stuck out his right hand into the middle of the huddle. One by one, the others also stuck out their hands and put them on top of that of Yugi's – first Anzu, then Honda, then Jounouchi, and finally Ryou.

 _Master Shadi told me about this,_  thought Bobasa.  _The power of the Millennium Puzzle is the Power of Unity._  He walked over and put his hand above the rest of all the hands, completing the circle.

 _If we concentrate, then the way will be opened_ , Yugi thought.

Everybody concentrated their minds on finding Yami Yugi. There was a flash of light, and then all of a sudden –

SHIINNNG!

A gigantic doorway opened, revealing the World of Memory.

"No way! We're in…Ancient Egypt?!" Honda said amazedly.

They all stood several thousand feet in the air, staring down at the tiny houses and people below.  _It's another world! His world! The World of Memory!_  Yugi thought, his eyes gleaming with excitement.  _Somewhere in this world, the Other Me is waiting!_

"Let's go!" Yugi said cheerfully.

"Whaa-?! You wanna jump?! From up  _here_?!" Jounouchi said fearfully.

"Do not worry. You will feel no pain," said Bobasa. "We have no corporeal bodies in this world." He grabbed Jounouchi and jumped. Jounouchi squealed and screamed as he plummeted downwards in Bobasa's hold. Afterwards, Anzu and Honda jumped after them.

Ryou stood in the doorway, getting ready to jump as well, when all of a sudden he sensed a presence behind him. When he looked around, he saw a shadow of a person move somewhere between the walls of the maze.

"Hello? Is anybody there?" Ryou followed the movement of the shadow until he found out who it was. It was the Ring Spirit, standing in the dark alleyway.

"There you are!" Ryou exclaimed happily. "I've been looking everywhere for you! Where have you been? Why are you hiding from us?"

The Spirit crossed his arms and chuckled darkly. The shadows hid half of his face.

"You don't have to hide anymore," Ryou insisted. "I've told everyone the truth! You should come join us! Now's your chance to finally become friends with everybody."

"My dear Light, as much as I would love to join you and your delightful group of friends, I can't. I'm too shy," the Spirit said with a charming smile.

"Oh. I guess it can't be helped," Ryou said sympathetically.

"I need you to continue trying to convince your friends that I've turned good," the Spirit continued. "Once I'm confident that they believe you, I'll be able to join you."

"You can count on me!" Ryou saluted.

"Good boy. Now you better go. I'm sure your friends must be getting worried about you."

"Sir yes sir!" Ryou turned around and went back to the door, where he took a deep breath and jumped.

As soon as Ryou was gone, the Spirit threw his head back and laughed darkly.


	3. Divine Light, Divine Shadow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have to be honest; the story doesn’t really begin to diverge from the manga until chapter 5, so these next two chapters aren’t going to have much new material or creativity on my part. Thanks for sitting through it anyway.

The Memory World was beautiful and breathtakingly real. Ancient Egyptian people scurried about the marketplace, bargaining with each other on prices. Children ran around the streets, playing. It was a perfect life-sized rendition of the world of Yami Yugi’s past. Yugi, Jounouchi, Honda, and Anzu drank in the sights in awe.

“Whoaa!” Jounouchi breathed. “Do you see what I see?”

“Yeah!” Honda agreed. “I dunno if I believe it thought. This place…all these people…it all looks so real.”

“Wait a minute, where’s Bakura?” Jounouchi asked.

“That idiot! Did he get lost again?!” Honda said.

“I’m right here guys!” Ryou suddenly popped out from nowhere. “Sorry I’m late! I got held up because I was scared to jump out of the door!”

“You too?” Jounouchi breathed a sigh of relief. It felt good to know that he hadn’t been the only person who was afraid to jump.

“Look! Over there!” Anzu said, pointing at the Pharaoh’s palace. “We’re really in Ancient Egypt!”

“This is the World of Memory when the Other Me was Pharaoh 3,000 years ago,” said Yugi. “So that means that the Other Me must be in the Palace! He’s the King!”

“Awright! To the Palace!” Jounouchi shouted. “Let’s go see Yugi!”

Everyone began running towards the palace, filled with excitement.

“I always knew he’d make good! I bet he’ll welcome us with a big feast!” said Honda.

“You can’t do it!” Bobasa shouted out.

Everyone stopped running and looked at Bobasa questioningly.

“We do not exist here. We are like ghosts in this world!” Bobasa explained. “No one here is able to see us!”

“You’re joking! ‘Course they can!” Jounouchi laughed, and he waved at a random woman who was walking towards him in order to demonstrate. “Like this babe here. Yo!”

The woman literally walked right through Jounouchi without a second glance.

“No way!” Jounouchi shuddered. “She walked right through me…”

“Yes. We cannot touch anything or speak with anyone,” said Bobasa.

“What!?” everyone cried out. Everyone except for Ryou, who only looked bored, as if he had been expecting such a thing to happen.

“With these conditions, you must find the Pharaoh’s lost name,” said Bobasa. “That is the purpose of this journey!”

_That’s right!_ Yugi thought. _That’s why we came here! To find the Other Me’s name._

“Hey! This means we’re invisible, right?” said Jounouchi. “So we _could_ sneak in the palace and see how Yugi’s doing!”

“You can’t do that either,” said Bobasa.

“What! Why not?” Jounouchi shouted indignantly.

“Even in the Pharaoh’s world of memory, there are places that we cannot go! The Pharaoh’s desire to protect the palace is very strong,” said Bobasa. “Even if we cannot be seen, we will be pushed away from the palace as if by an invisible shield.”

“That’s not fair,” said Anzu. “We can’t see him? But we’re so close!”

“We’re his friends!” said Jounouchi. “Why is protecting the palace more important than seeing _us_?”

_How can I find the name like this?_ Yugi wondered. _We can’t ask anyone, we can’t go to the most obvious place…this is going to be hard._

All of a sudden, a random man in the marketplace and began shouting the news. “This is terrible!” he said. “A decree just came down from the palace! The priests are going to station troops in the city!”

“What?!!” The other ancient people in the marketplace began to grow agitated.

“They’re searching for this thief called Bakura,” the original man continued.

“Bakura?!” another man shouted in fear. “You mean the one they call ‘King of Thieves?’ The one who plundered the Pharaoh’s tomb?! And killed over 100 soldiers?! He’s in this city?!”

_The Other Me did a lot of bad things when he was alive,_ Ryou thought. _I’m not going to hold it against him though._

The citizens of the ancient world began running in fear.

“What’s everyone runnin’ from?” Jounouchi questioned.

“Do you ever get the feeling we don’t fit in?” Honda said, feeling self-conscious. “Doesn’t matter if they can’t see us, but…”

“Hey! That’s right! We’re like invisible men!” Jounouchi suddenly realized.

“We can sneak into all the harems!” Honda realized it too.

“These are Yugi’s memories, you morons! There’s nothing perverted like that here!” Anzu scolded. “Anyway, we came here to find Yugi!”

“That’s right! Don’t forget our mission!” Ryou agreed. “To find the Other Yugi’s real name!”

“Oh yeah, that’s right,” Yugi said, blushing as he struggled to get the mental image of harems out of his head. “Let’s go head toward the palace!” he said.

And so, the entire group ran over to the Phraoh’s palace, following a progression of soldiers. But right when they were about to enter the palace, the front gates closed up.

“ACK! They closed the gates!” Jounouchi said, running up to the guards at the front gate. “Hey open up! Yugi’s…I mean the Pharaoh’s friends have come to see him!” He waved a hand in front of the guard’s eyes, trying to get his attention. “C’mon, look at me!”

“It’s impossible! They can’t see or hear us!” Yugi said.

All of a sudden Jounouchi came up with an idea. “Hey that’s right! We’re ghosts! If we can walk through that guy, we can walk through this door!” He charged himself at the wall and then…

GONG!

Jounouchi crashed straight into the wall. “Owww!” he said, clutching his head in pain. “What’s going on? That hurt!”

“We can _touch_ this wall!” Honda realized as he put his hands on the palace walls.

“It’s no good! We can’t get in!” said Yugi.

“That is the strength of the Pharaoh’s will,” said Bobasa. “His desire to keep out intruders repels us.”

“But we’re his pals! Does that mean he doesn’t remember us anymore?” Jounouchi said. “’Intruders’?! You’ve got to be kidding.” He turned towards the sky and shouted, “SO NOW THAT YOU’RE THE PHARAOH, YOU’RE TOO GOOD FORUS, HUH?! I NEVER THOUGHT YOU’D TREAT YOUR FRIENDS THIS WAY! YOU JERK!”

“It’s not like that, Jounouchi,” said Yugi. “We’ll get to see the Other Me sometime.”

But since there was nothing they could do, the group decided to hang about the outside of the palace gates, waiting for something to happen. Hours passed, and they fell asleep against the walls.

* * *

“It’s him! It’s Bakura!” somebody was shouting. “Don’t let him get away!”

The commotion slowly woke up Yugi and Jounouchi. “Whaz all the noise?” Jounouchi said with a yawn.

“Something’s going on,” said Yugi, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

“Bakura’s escaping toward the city!” a voice yelled. “The Pharaoh is chasing him!”

_Bakura?!_

Yugi was immediately wide-awake. “The Pharaoh?!” he exclaimed. He looked over at the palace gates and was amazed by what he saw.

Yami Yugi, dressed in traditional ancient Egyptian clothing, was riding a horse and chasing after an ancient version of Bakura, who was also on a horse and had a huge, godlike beast flying behind him. A large red dragon flew behind Yami Yugi, and there was no mistake that it was Slifer the Sky Dragon.

By this point in time, the rest of Yugi’s friends were also wide-awake and could see what was going on.

“He’s dressed like a king, but there’s no mistake! That’s Yugi! And Slifer the Sky Dragon too!” Jounouchi said.

Yugi, Jounouchi, Anzu, Honda, and Bobasa began chasing after Yami Yugi on foot. Ryou, on the other hand, pretended to chase after Yami Yugi, but he was actually chasing Bakura.

“Get Bakura!” a guard shouted from the roof of the palace.

“Come one, come all! It’s the Pharaoh’s grand parade!” Bakura shouted with a laugh.

_Oh no! He’s flying too low! Innocent bystanders are going to get hurt!_ Yami Yugi thought.

Diabound was flying at an altitude so low that the people on the ground could feel the wind rushing past them. “A huge monster in the sky!” one citizen said.

“What monster?! I can’t see anything!” another citizen shouted.

“’Great Pharaoh’! Let’s play a game! See how many of these fools you can save! It’s a killing game!” Bakura said. “Diabound, my glorious spirit! Destroy the city! Slaughter them! Magic Blast!”

Diabound shot blast after blast of magic attacks at the ground, destroying buildings and causing distress to the citizens.

“AAGH! Run for you lives!” the citizens screamed.

“Slifer!” Yami Yugi commanded.

Slifer flew down and put its body above the citizens, shielding them from the attacks. BOOM! BOOM! The attacks hit Slifer’s body and caused Yami Yugi to groan in pain.

“So, you shield them by taking the attacks yourself,” said Bakura. “But how long can you last? ‘Great Pharaoh’? You’re trapped! If you move an inch, the people below become my target!”

_He’s attacking the people to force me to use Slifer as a shield,_ Yami Yugi thought with great resentment.

“HA HA HA! One blow from diabound will be enough to kill your so-called ‘God’! Spiral wave!” Bakura commanded.

Diabound began forming a Spiral Wave, but before he could launch the attack, Slifer shot a Lightning Strike at the ground in order to propel itself into the air. It spun around in midair and shot a second Lightning Strike at Diabound. Then Yami Yugi commanded Slifer to pull Diabound into the air so as to take the battle somewhere safer. Slifer fired a Thunder Force attack, but Diabound dodged it by disappearing into the shadows of the night.

“Didn’t I tell you, Pharaoh? Diabound has a new power! He can blend into his surroundings!” Bakura said. “Right now, Diabound is one with the darkness of the heavens!”

_Diabound can hide himself no matter where he is?! It’s like he’s invisible!_ Yami Yugi thought.

“My attacks come unseen from the dark! And the next target is your God! Spiral Wave!” Bakura commanded.

Diabound unleashed a surprise Spiral Wave attack at Slifer, and Yami Yugi clutched at his chest in pain. If Slifer were to take another surprise attack, it would be finished.

Bakura stopped his horse on the edge of a cliff and gazed down at Yami Yugi contemptuously. “Now do you see? Even the royal power of the Pharaoh is nothing before me! Whether they’re men or Gods, _all_ lives are in my hands!” Bakura showed the Pharaoh his bloody hand. “Let me tell you why. The blood on my hands and this thirst for death is the will of the Millennium Items. The thieves of Kul Elna sealed within the Millennium Items speak to me from the depths of hell! The one who gathers all seven Millennium Items will be granted the shadow power and will rule the world! Hahaha! Now, Pharaoh, give me the Millennium Pendant. If you don’t, I’ll bombard this city until it looks like the desert around it.”

With no other choice, Yami Yugi took off his Millennium Pendant and held it out at arm’s length, as if preparing to drop it. While Bakura’s attention was on the Pendant, Yami Yugi launched a plan to draw Diabound out of hiding; he commanded Slifer to launch a surprise attack on Bakura. Unfortunately, Diabound came out of the ground and held Yami Yugi hostage, forcing Slifer to halt in its attack. Bakura commanded Diabound to kill the Pharaoh.

Luckily the High Priests arrived just in time. Priest Set’s spirit, Duos, blocked Diabound’s attack and saved Yami Yugi’s life. As soon as the Priests arrived, Bakura rode away on his horse to find higher ground, and Diabound went back into hiding in the shadows of the sky.

And so the battle continued. Yami Yugi and his priests aimed their attacks at the sky, but as they could not see Diabound, they couldn’t land a single hit. Diabound launched a Spiral Wave and destroyed Priest Shada’s ka. Yami Yugi used Slifer as a decoy and took a direct hit in order to allow Priest Set to figure out Diabound’s location and launch an attack with his Aura Sword. Unfortunately it didn’t work because Bakura summoned a weaker ka from the Shrine of Wedju in order to block the attack.

Diabound was invisible once more, Slifer was destroyed, and Yami Yugi’s ba was depleted. All hope seemed lost. Then all of a sudden…

“Other Me!” said a familiar voice.

Yami Yugi turned around, and his friends were there. Yugi, Jounouchi, Anzu, Honda, and Bobasa had finally managed to catch up. Yugi reached out as if to grab Yami Yugi’s hand, and together they were able to summon another God: the Sun Dragon Ra.

Light cut through the clouds and pierced the shadows so that Diabound could hide no longer. Even though it was the middle of the night, the light of the sun shone down on Earth and changed night into day. With one direct attack, the Sun Dragon Ra destroyed Diabound with its God Phoenix attack. Bakura choked on blood, fell over on his horse, and died. The Priests and citizens of Egypt looked up at the sky and began celebrating.

“You did it, Yugi!” Jounouchi said.

“Yugi, you can really tell we’re here, right?” Honda said with tearful eyes. “You can see us, right?”

“Yes! I can see you Honda!” said Yami Yugi. “My partner, Jounouchi, and Anzu!”

Everybody cheered, and Anzu cried tears of joy.

“Man, when I saw you all dressed like a king, riding a horse, I hardly recognized you!” said Jounouchi.

“When I first came to this world, I didn’t know what was going on,” Yami Yugi said. “I didn’t know why I was the Pharaoh, or the role of the Millennium Items. But as time passed, I began to understand the position I was in, and my duty to protect this country. _My_ country.”

“When we first came here, we were told we couldn’t touch or talk to anyone in this world!” said Yugi. “After all, this is your world of memory.”

“Our mission is to find your true name! The one that’s supposed to be erased from your memory!” said Jounouchi.

“To us, you’re ‘Yugi,’ but 3,000 years ago, you must have had a different name. Your lost name is hidden somewhere in this world,” said Anzu.

“Don’t worry man! You can count on us! We’ll find your name!” said Jounouchi.

* * *

The Ring Spirit flew over to the cliff where the Thief King was located and glared at the dead corpse angrily.

_Grr, you can’t die_ now _. This isn’t how it’s supposed to be!_ the Spirit thought. _Tonight you were supposed to_ defeat _the Pharaoh!_

Ryou suddenly appeared on the cliff. He knelt by the Thief King’s corpse’s side and began weeping.

“Yugi…” Ryou sobbed, “I know he needed to be stopped, but did you really have to go so far as to killing him?”

_Oh come on, don’t mourn for him. He couldn’t even do his job right,_ the Spirit thought.

The tears flowed down Ryou’s face and landed in the dirt in front of him. Had the Thief King Bakura’s behavior been wrong? Definitely. Did his crimes need to be accounted for? Absolutely. But did that really mean the Thief King deserved the death penalty? Ryou didn’t think so, and he thought that Yugi could’ve handled the situation better.

_Why did you have to kill him, Yugi?_ Ryou thought. _You could’ve defeated him some other way…_

The Spirit floated to the floor and approached Ryou from behind. “Don’t worry, he’s not dead,” the Spirit said.

When Ryou turned around, he was shocked to see the Spirit standing before him.

“Well okay, technically he is dead, but it’s not the end of the world,” the Spirit said good-naturedly.

“Spirit!” Ryou shouted out exuberantly. He sprang up to his feet and cried tears of joy. “Oh thank goodness you’re alright! I thought I’d lost you forever!”

“It takes more than that to kill _me_ ,” the Spirit said with a charismatic smirk.

“Did you really mean what you said earlier about him not being dead?” Ryou questioned.

“He _is_ dead, but there’s a way to revive him. Watch this.” The Spirit grinned in such a way that exposed his sharp canine teeth. “I’m going to rewind time.”


	4. Time Rewound!

The colossal figure of a long-haired man wearing armor and a long-flowing cape appeared in the sky. The people on the ground screamed and stared up at the figure in fear.

"What's that?!" Yugi said.

"My name is Zorc Necrophades," the figure said. "I rule this world of memory. I am the rule of the shadows who controls the hands of time of future and past. Pharaoh, your meeting with your friends has warped these fateful memories. You have even defeated my Bakura. But I can't let him die yet. Such a pity, but the joyous reunion with your vessel ends here. MEMORY REVERSE!"

All at once, time began to flow backwards. Bakura and Diabound came back to life, and the Sun Dragon Ra rose into the air and faded away as if it had never been summoned.

"This world is made of memories, Pharaoh! Yours and mine! It is the after-image of our souls trapped in the Millennium Puzzle!" Zorc said. "Our battle of 3,000 years ago isn't over yet! As long as our desire to finish it lingers in this world, your soul will never be at rest, and I cannot be reborn in the modern world! A War of Memory! This Millennium Puzzle is the stage for our second battle, Pharaoh! And this is where we'll fight to the last! In this world, death leads to a void of shadows! Not to the modern world or the afterlife…no heaven…no hell…nothing but eternal darkness! I'll defeat you once again and return to life in the modern world!"

"You tryin' to kill Yugi?!" Jounouchi said.

"Grr! He's the real enemy! Not Bakura!" said Honda.

"My one miscalculation is that your friends have come here where they don't belong," Zorc continued. "Their interference in your memories has introduced a random element…an unforeseen factor…but the reunion ends now!"

With a wave of Zorc's hand, time rewound even more. Yugi, Jounouchi, Honda, Anzu, and Bobasa began to fly backwards away from Yami Yugi.

"Other me!" Yugi shouted.

"Partner!" Yami Yugi shouted back.

Yugi and his Other Self reached out to each other, trying to grab each others' hands, but to no avail. Yugi was gone.

"I have the power to control time in this playback of your memories," Zorc said. "You used the power of your friends to summon the Sun God and defeat Bakura and Diabound. But now, time has been turned back and your friends aren't here. Do you know what that means, Pharaoh?"

Yami Yugi clutched his chest and coughed up blood. At this point in time, Slifer had just been defeated, and the Thief King sat on his horse at the edge of the cliff, laughing.

"Bakura becomes my important tool later. I can't let him die now," said Zorc. "This is far enough to rewind. It is time for the truth to move forward again! And now, Bakura, follow what fate has been set aside for you. In the final battle, I will defeat the Pharaoh. This time he can't seal me into the Millennium Puzzle. After all, this world is already within the Millennium Puzzle! Heh heh heh! We'll meet again, Pharaoh!"

Zorc faded away into the night sky.

"I've killed the God of the heavens!" Bakura said. "Now, Diabound, kill the priests' Ka and slaughter this whole city!"

Yugi, Jounouchi, Honda, and Anzu, and Ryou watched Slifer being killed from the ground from far, far away.

"Yugi's Slifer is down!" Jounouchi observed.

"Bakura, where the heck have you been?!" Honda said, suddenly noticing that Ryou was there.

"I got separated from the group!" Ryou made up a quick excuse. "But that's not important right now! We have to go help the Other Yugi!"

"Bakura's right, there's no time to lose!" Yugi said, and he and his friends along with Bobasa began to run towards where Yami Yugi and the other priests were located.

_And this time we'll do it without killing the Thief King,_  Ryou thought.

All of a sudden, the Ring Spirit appeared in front of the group. "Tsk, tsk, that's far enough," the Spirit said.

"Bakura! What are you doing here?!" Honda gasped.

"We'll talk later, Bakura! We're in a hurry! Outta the way!" Jounouchi said.

"Guys, it's fine! He's just trying to help us help Yugi! Right, Spirit?" Ryou said.

"Wrong!" the Spirit said. "The only reason I ever played with you was to resurrect Zorc Necrophades."

"What are you talking about?" said Ryou, who was confused.

"I'll make it simple," the Spirit said. "I'm disowning you as my host."

"What?!" Ryou gaped. "Spirit, don't even joke about something like that. This isn't funny."

"Quit yakking and move it, Bakura! Or I'll knock your block off!" Jounouchi shouted.

"Jounouchi!" Yugi yelled, trying to make Jounouchi stop, but it was too late. Jounouchi ran forward and tried to punch the Ring Spirit in the chest. However, the Spirit used his Millennium Ring to make Jounouchi fly backwards.

"Well? Do you all want to die like the Pharaoh?" the Spirit laughed.

"Why you lousy – " Jounouchi cursed.

"Bakura, we don't have time to fight each other! Please let us by!" Yugi said, trying to be polite.

"If you want to get by, you have to defeat me first!" the Spirit said.

_I trusted you!_  Yugi thought with a mix of hurt and anger.

"You know that this world is a memory created by the Other Yugi, the Pharaoh," the Spirit said. "The epic battle over the Millennium Items is replaying before our eyes. If we do nothing, events will proceed just as they did 3,000 years ago."

"We know that!" said Yugi. "That's why we have to save the Other Me from his cruel fate!"

"No you won't. I came to this world to stop you from doing that," the Spirit said with a stern glare.

"What the - ?! What do you mean Bakura? Why?"

"This world of memory is replaying moment by moment," the Spirit explained. "But the end will be different from 3,000 years ago because Zorc Necrophades, the High Priest of the Shadows, will kill the Pharaoh and become the one true ruler!  _Two_  souls were sealed into the Millennium Puzzle 3,000 years ago! Only the soul that wins this battle can return to the modern world. But you see Yugi, when the Pharaoh gained you as a vessel, he made friends with people from the modern world! Friends strong enough to make an imprint in his eternal memories! I never expected that his pathetic friends would infiltrate this world."

"Bakura…who in the world are you?" Yugi asked, slightly fearful.

"What if, 3,000 years ago, Zorc Necrophades sealed part of his soul into this Millennium Ring. What do you say to that?"

"Bakura…" Yugi began to say. "Are you…?"

"That's right! I am Zorc! Zorc Necrophades!" the Spirit shouted with an evil grin.

_Zorc!_  Yugi thought.  _Zorc used our friend Bakura to try and steal the Millennium Items and our lives!_

"Your existence has the ability to warp this world. I have to get rid of you, and it has to be this!" the Spirit said. He raised his left arm and began summoning a Duel Disk in a grotesque manner. His arm bulged and expanded until a Duel Disk grew out of it, along with his deck.

"A Duel Disk!" Jounouchi gaped. "He grew it outta his arm!"

"Don't look so shocked," the Spirit said with a contemptuous grin. "Everything that the Pharaoh remembers from the modern world also exists here. Even if you can't see something, your mind can will it to appear! Now you try."

Yugi and Jounouchi began imagining Duel Disks appearing on their left arms. The Disks gradually came into existence, resting on their arms as natural as if they were real.

"I got it!" Jounouchi said, amazed at what he saw.

"My deck's in place too!" Yugi said in awe.

"In Anicent Egypt, they played this game using monsters from Stone Slabs," the Spirit said. "But for us 21st century Duelists, these just seem more appropriate."

"Now you're talking! This is the best weapon for a Duelist!" Jounouchi grinned.

"Now…which one? Which one of you should die first?" the Spirit asked.

"I'll take you on!" said Jounouchi. "Leave it to me, Yugi! I didn't make it through Battle City for nothing!"

"I give you points for guts, but don't forget this is a Shadow Game!" the Spirit said. "In this world, if you lose your 4000 life points, you die. True death…eternal darkness! Oblivion! And there's no coming back, you understand? Those who lose here can never return to the real world!"

"Let's go, Bakura! Duel!" Jounouchi yelled.

"I summon Death Spirit Zoma!" said the Spirit.

"I summon the Panther Warrior!" said Jounouchi.

"Alright, that's enough! No more fighting!" Ryou stepped in front of Jounouchi and glared at the Ring Spirit. "Spirit, please stop this right now. You're taking this too far."

"RYOU! Get out of the way!" Jounouchi shouted.

"So you want to die first, don't you?" the Spirit chuckled. "Go! Death Spirit Zoma, attack my former host!"

To Ryou's total utter shock, the Death Spirit Zoma flew forward and started to launch an attack. Jounouchi quickly shoved Ryou out of the way and allowed himself to be attacked instead.

"AAGGHH!" Jounouchi screamed.

At that moment, everything began to fade to black. Darkness fell upon the entire World of Memory.

_The Other Me!_  Yugi thought as he realized that his other half must've been in trouble.

The next moment, the light came back and the Ring Spirit was gone, along with the Duel Monsters. Yugi and Jounouchi, along with the rest of the Gang, were standing exactly in the same place as they were before, except that their Duel Disks were gone.

"What happened to that jerk Bakura?" Honda wondered.

"I don't get it," Jounouchi said. "I was in the middle of a duel with Bakura when everything went black. Then I come to, and I'm still standing in the same place, but Bakura's gone! I can't remember anything in between!"

"This world is made of the Pharaoh's memories," Bobasa said. "Something must have happened to the Pharaoh when we were swallowed by darkness."

"But the fact that the lights came on and we're still here means that the Other Yugi is okay, right?" Anzu said. "We have to find the Other Yugi right away."

"Yeah, we can't find any clues to his name anyway," said Jounouchi.

"Where's  _our_  Yugi?" Anzu wondered.

"He went to that bar!" Honda said, pointing at a nearby bar. "The bar is  _the_  place to collect information in role-playing games!"

"Idiot! This isn't a game!" Jounouchi said.

"Hey Bakura, are you okay?" Anzu said, looking at Ryou. "You've been awfully quiet lately.

Ryou was still standing where he was before, eyes filled with shock. "He  _attacked_  me!" he gaped. "Me! His only friend!"

"Face it, Ryou, your friendship with the evil Bakura was never real in the first place," Jounouchi said.

"Not real?" Ryou repeated. Tears were forming at the corners of his eyes. "No, it  _was_  real! I know it was!"

Just then, Yugi reappeared, having returned from his trip at the bar. "The people in there say the Other me is in the Village of Thieves," he said.

"The Village of Thieves? Where's that?" Jounouchi said.

"I know where it is!" Ryou piped up. "Follow me!" He began walking and gestured for his friends to follow.

"How do you know where it is?" Honda questioned as he started to follow Ryou.

"Trust me, it's just down this path," Ryou said as he continued walking.

_What's up with him? He's acting as if he's already been to Ancient Egypt before!_  Jounouchi thought with a mixture of confusion and bewilderment.

All of a sudden, the world stopped moving. The people in the streets froze in place, and everything was silent. Yugi, Jounouchi, Honda, Anzu, and Ryou stopped what they were doing to stare.

"Hey look! Something weird's going on!" Jounouchi said.

"Everyone's stopped moving!" Yugi said. "What's happened to the city?"

Jounouchi waved a hand in front of a child playing with a ball. "Hey you," he said, but to no avail. The child could not hear him.

"But we're still moving normally," Honda observed.

"Everyone's frozen. They look like a bunch of dolls," Jounouchi said.

"It reminds me of when we were turned into figurines in Bakura's shadow game. Remember?" Anzu said.

"Figurines!" Yugi exclaimed. "I wonder if this world…is a game world?"

A cold chill ran down Ryou's spine. "This is…this is the diorama of Ancient Egypt that the Spirit and I built together for the museum's exhibit!" he gasped. "But how…? How did we end up here!?"

"He must've tricked you into building him an RPG table for a Shadow Game," Yugi reasoned.

"See, I told you your friendship with him wasn't real! He was only pretending to be friends with you so that you would let him possess you," Jounouchi said.

"Stop it! You don't know what you're talking about!" Ryou yelled, clearly in denial. "There must be some kind of mistake…"

"Bakura…" Yugi gazed at Ryou with a look of sympathy. There wasn't much he could do or say to help his friend.

"Look!" Jounouchi said, pointing at the sky. "The sky's turning black! That's an omen of some kind of danger!"

Suddenly Bobasa's body began to glow. "He has come!" Bobasa said. "Zorc has been reborn from the shadows! I am the one who guards the Stone Tablet. I have protected the tablet all these years. This light is a sign that the Millennium Items have been returned to the Stone Tablet where they were made. And now, my other self, Hasan, the Spirit of the Stone Tablet, will show the way to where the name of the Pharaoh sleeps! I have waited to carry out this task for 3,000 years!"

Bobasa transformed into Hasan, a tall man wearing a mask.

"When the Evil God Zorc rises from his slumber, I can reveal the hiding place of the Pharaoh's true name," Hasan said. "That is my duty!"

"So where is it, Bo – I mean Hasan?" Jounouchi demanded.

"The Pharaoh's name rests in the holy place where his soul sleeps!" said Hasan.

"The Pharaoh's tomb!" Yugi exclaimed.

"The Pharaoh's tomb?" Jounouchi repeated, confused. "But he's still alive!"

"In Ancient Egypt, the Pharaohs built their tombs while they were still on the throne," Anzu explained.

"The Valley of the Kings! That's where his tomb must be!" Yugi reasoned.

"You have little time," said Hasan. "Only you five may enter that holy place! You  _must_  find the name of the Pharaoh!"

"Yup! We got it!" Yugi said.

"I'll leave it to you," Hasan said, and he jumped over fifty feet into the air and flew away.

"He flew away?!" Jounouchi exclaimed in surprise. "Who the heck is he?!"

"We better hurry too! To the Valley of the Kings!" Yugi said.

"But that's way over the other side of the Nile!" Anzu said.

_But if my theory is right…if this is a game world, then this'll prove it!_  Yugi thought, and he jumped ten feet into the air and started to fly. Jounouchi, Honda, and Anzu looked up at Yugi in surprise. Ryou, on the other hand, wasn't surprised; he just felt stupid for not figuring this out earlier.

One by one, Jounouchi, Honda, Anzu, and Ryou jumped into the air and flew after Yugi. They went thousands of feet up into the air and followed Hasan to the Valley of the Kings.

"This whole world is a game?!" Anzu shouted, as she still couldn't completely wrap her head around it.

"No way…" Jounouchi said.

"So we can fly?!" Honda exclaimed.

"Look! That must be it!" Yugi said, pointing downwards. "That's where the Other Me's real name is hidden! In the Royal Tomb!"

When they approached the Royal Tomb, they flew down and landed on the floor. In front of them was the Royal Tomb's entrance, guarded by two men where stood frozen. They went inside, where the walls were covered with Ancient Egyptian pictures.

"You can tell this is a King's Tomb!" Honda said, examining the surroundings. "Look at all the statues and pillars!"

_He was here all alone after he died,_ Yugi thought.  _That must have been lonely._

Finally the Gang entered a dungeon where a maze of statues stood before them. They couldn't fly inside a dungeon, so they had to cross the maze on foot. When they were halfway across the maze, time started flowing again, and the statues started moving around, swinging their swords around. They all managed to get across the maze safely and soundly at the end.

When they entered the next room, the Ring Spirit was waiting for them.

"Bakura! What are you doing here?!" Jounouchi demanded.

"You came looking for the Pharaoh's name, right? Seems like it's back there," the Spirit said, pointing behind himself. "The Thief's soul in my Ring can sense it. But I can't let you find it. So this is as far as you go." He summoned a Duel Disk on his arm. "If you want to get past me, you'll have to defeat me first. This time for real. Remember what I said last time, before we were interrupted? We each have 4,000 life points…"

"And when you run out, you die. This is a Shadow Game!" Yugi said, summoning his own Duel Disk.

"Yugi! Don't do it!" Ryou pleaded.

"Bakura, if you know what's good for you, you'll stay behind me and let me do the work," Yugi told Ryou.

"But I can't let you do this!" Ryou said. "If you play the game with the Other Me, it means one of you is going to die! And I don't want  _either_  one of you to die! Please Yugi, let me talk to him instead! I can convince him to let us pass!"

"What makes you so sure he'll listen to you?" Jounouchi questioned.

"I knew him personally!" Ryou said. "If anyone can get through to him, it has to be me! Just give me fifteen minutes to talk to him alone, please." He desperately gazed at Yugi with wide, pleading eyes.

Yugi hesitated. "…alright, fifteen minutes it is," he said after a pause. "C'mon guys, let's go back to the previous room. We'll leave the Bakuras alone for a while."

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Yugi?" Jounouchi said.

"He deserves a chance," Yugi said determinedly.

And so, Yugi, Jounouchi, Honda and Anzu returned to the previous room, leaving Ryou and the Ring Spirit alone with one another.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TW: Yami Bakura gets a bit violent with a knife in the middle of this chapter. It's nothing too graphic; just some mild violence. But I'll place a warning here just in case.

"So let me get this straight. You used my diorama for a Shadow Game?" Ryou said as he crossed his arms and stared at the Spirit sternly like a parent who had caught a child misbehaving.

The Spirit just stood there and laughed.

"All that time and energy!" Ryou ranted angrily. "All those nights staying up late! I did all that hard work so that you could take my diorama and use it for a Shadow Game!"

"Did you really think I made you build it for the museum's exhibit?" the Spirit said tauntingly. "Ha! Only an idiot would believe that."

"You mean you planned to do this all along?!" Ryou gasped.

The Spirit continued laughing without a shred of remorse whatsoever.

Ryou decided there was no point in getting too upset over this. Taking a deep breath, he said, "Alright, no big deal. I could always rebuild it. I'll let it go this one time, and once we get home we can pretend that this Shadow Game never happened."

"I'm not going home with you. I don't need you anymore," the Spirit said haughtily.

"Spirit, it wasn't funny the first time and it's not funny now. Stop acting like this."

"I mean it!" the Spirit snarled. "You're not my host anymore!"

Ryou felt a cold chill run down his spine. "You can't be serious…"

The Spirit glared at Ryou with the most serious expression that he could muster. Ryou's eyes began to water.

"I don't understand…" Ryou said tearfully. "Didn't our friendship mean anything to you at all?"

"This is what's known as an 'efficient breach'. If we don't need each other any more, it only makes sense that we should cut off all ties," the Spirit said with his arms crossed.

"But that's cold!"

"You might think it's cold, but to me it's just logic." The Spirit pointed at the exit and said, "Go! Rejoin your friends already! Get out!"

Ryou didn't move.

"I said get out!" the Spirit said with increasing irritation. "Can't you see I don't want you anymore? Go on, beat it!"

"I'm not leaving," Ryou stood his ground.

"TCH!" the Spirit growled. "You don't get it yet, do you? I never cared for you! You were nothing but a tool to me!"

Ryou let out a tired, half-hearted chuckle. "There's no way that's true. You shielded me from Slifer, didn't you?" he said.

"I only did that because our lives are connected. If you die, then so do I. The only reason I kept you alive was out of necessity."

"Oh…" Ryou lowered his head and hugged himself. He could feel his heart shattering into a million pieces.

"You're still not leaving," the Spirit observed.

"Even if you don't care for me, that doesn't mean I'll stop caring about you," Ryou said determinedly.

"Then you're a fool," the Spirit said.

Ryou nodded at the floor. "Yeah, I know."

"Feh."

The Spirit couldn't remember another time when he had this much trouble breaking off an alliance. Usually his accomplices would bail as soon as he hurt or betrayed them. He had never expected Ryou to want to stick around  _after_  being betrayed. This was something completely new and unprecedented. So what did he have to say to make Ryou go away?

"It wasn't Marik's mind-slaves who hurt your arm, okay? It was me," the Spirit informed. "And the only reason I teamed up with him was to obtain information on how to summon Zorc. I don't care about your friends, and I  _never_  wanted to save Jounouchi and Anzu. In fact, I  _helped_  Marik gain control of them!"

"Why do you want to summon Zorc?" asked Ryou.

The Spirit let out an exasperated sigh. This was by far one of the most frustrating conversations he'd ever had with anybody. "Out of everything I just said,  _this_  is the part you decide to respond to?"

"But I really wanna know. Why do you want to summon him? What could you possibly stand to gain?" Ryou questioned.

"Isn't it obvious?" the Spirit grinned a maniacal, evil grin and threw his arms out crazily. "I want to destroy the world!"

Ryou cocked his head to the side in questioning. "Destroy the world? And then what? You wouldn't get any benefits."

"I'd get a gigantic demon body and unlimited power at my fingertips. I'd say there's plenty of benefits," the Spirit said chuckling.

"But what happens  _after_  that? After you've destroyed everything and there's nothing left to destroy? What do you do  _then_?! Did you ever think about whether this would make you happy in the long run?!"

"Shut up. You don't know anything about me."

Ryou opened his mouth to say something, but then thought better of it. It didn't seem like arguing this any further was going to go anywhere, so he would have to try a different tactic. "Can I join you?" he asked instead.

The question caught the Spirit off guard. "WHAT?!" he deadpanned, unsure if he had heard it right.

"I'll join you! Let's go summon Zorc!" Ryou said innocently.

The Spirit narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "What are you planning?"

"I'm not planning anything. I just think summoning demons is fun."

"LIAR! I know what you're up to! You want to pretend to team up with me so that you find a way to foil my plans!"

Ryou let out a sigh of defeat. "No, that's not it." There was no point trying to hide anything from his Other Self. Even when they weren't sharing a mind-link, the Spirit could read Ryou like a book. "The real reason is, I don't want you to wind up getting hurt. If you try to go up against my friends alone, you're most likely going to lose. Plus, there's a chance that if I stay with you, I might be able to convince you to have a change of heart."

"Unlikely chance!"

"Still, I have to try."

For a moment neither of them spoke. They stared at each other expressionlessly, as if daring the other to make a move.

Then the Spirit crossed his arms and turned up his nose, saying, "Go away. I don't need your help. You've outlived your usefulness."

"I can still be useful," Ryou said with a casual shrug. "You can use me as a hostage."

The Spirit stared at Ryou with a look of surprise. "You're…offering yourself up as a hostage?" he gaped.

Ryou nodded.

The Spirit burst into a maniacal fit of laughter that lasted for nearly fifteen seconds straight. A willing hostage! What an opportunity! He couldn't have asked for anything better. This was an idea that he never would've come up with if Ryou hadn't suggested it.

* * *

Yugi, Jounouchi, Honda and Anzu sat in the previous room together, waiting for Ryou to come out. They fiddled their thumbs and murmured to one another, slightly nervous about what was happening in the room behind them.

"Is it really okay for us to leave them alone in there together?" Anzu said nervously.

"Ryou's got guts, standing up to the evil Bakura like that," Jounouchi said. "But I doubt it's going to amount to anything. They weren't even real friends in the first place, so how is talking things out going to solve anything?"

"They weren't close the way we are," Honda agreed. "True friends never betray each other or use each other for their own benefits."

"I have another theory," Yugi said. "Maybe the Bakuras  _were_  real friends. The evil Bakura betrayed the good Bakura, but before the betrayal happened, maybe they  _had_  been friends. Maybe even more than just friends; they might've been  _family_."

"Family?" Anzu echoed questionably.

Yugi nodded. "I know that if my Other Self were ever to betray me – not that he would, but I'm just saying if he did, then I would do everything in my power to get him back on my side. So I can understand a little of what Bakura is going through."

There was a scream.

"That sounded like Bakura!  _Our_  Bakura!" Anzu exclaimed.

Yugi, Jounouchi, Honda, and Anzu quickly got up and entered the next room where they were shocked by what they saw. The Ring Spirit stood in the middle of the room with his arms around Ryou's shoulders. In the Spirit's right hand he held a knife, which was pointed directly at Ryou's neck.

_The evil Bakura has taken the good Bakura hostage!_  Yugi thought with dread.

"Get your filthy hands off of him!" Honda yelled.

"Why you dirty rotten – " Jounouchi began shouting a string of curse words at the Spirit.

"Leave this place and never come back!" the Spirit commanded. "Otherwise your friend is dead!"

"It's a bluff!" Yugi exclaimed. "You can't actually kill the good Bakura because your lives are connected! If he dies, then so do you!"

"No, but I can mangle him up and make him suffer," the Spirit said as he pressed the knife against Ryou's neck. "We wouldn't want that now, would we?" he said with a cruel laugh.

Ryou whimpered in fear. "Please…just do what he says…" he rasped.

Seeing as they had no other choice, Yugi, Jounouchi, Honda, and Anzu quickly backed away out of the room, muttering curses as they did so. Once they were gone, the Spirit let go of Ryou, threw his head back, and laughed manically.

Once the Spirit let go of him, Ryou crouched down and buried his face in his hands. His neck was bleeding slightly from where the Spirit had pressed the knife into him. "What have I done?" Ryou moaned with great remorse. He had betrayed his friends, making them think he was a victim of a hostage situation, and the guilt was unbearable. He was really starting to question whether or not what he was doing was the right thing to do.

"You did a great job!" the Spirit said with a laugh. "You play the role of the victim perfectly!"

"I just don't understand you," Ryou said with a mixture of tiredness and anger. "You were my best friend! I treated you like my brother, and I loved you! I don't understand how you can betray me like this without feeling any guilt whatsoever!"

"Did it ever occur to you that not everybody is like you? Not everybody has access to emotions like guilt," the Spirit said. The tone of his voice was slightly sad.

"Now you're just being ridiculous! Who doesn't have access to guilt? Unless…" All of a sudden Ryou realized something. "Wait a minute…Spirit…are you a sociopath?!"

"Am I a what?" The Spirit paused for a couple of seconds to think about it. "Hmm, you might be right." He thought about it some more, and then a delightful grin appeared on his face. "Yes, I think I probably am!" he marveled. He wasn't offended in the slightest. If anything he was happy to have a new label to identify himself with.

Everything was finally clicking into place. The reason the Spirit couldn't feel any guilt was because he had antisocial personality disorder! In hindsight it had been so obvious. Ryou gazed at his former best friend with a look of bewilderment and wonder.

"Were you born like this, or…?" Ryou questioned.

The Spirit pondered for a moment and then said, "No, I wasn't born this way. There was this thing that happened in my childhood that made me the way I am."

"Share it with me!" Ryou pleaded.

"Well alright. I have nothing better to do anyway." The Spirit tapped at his chin, trying to figure out where to begin. "You know how the Millennium Items have an evil aura surrounding them? The reason for that lies in their origins. Would you like to learn how they were created?"

Ryou nodded eagerly.

"The secret ingredient to their creation is 99 human souls…"

And so the Spirit told Ryou everything. He talked about his traumatic childhood and how his village was massacred. He talked about how 99 souls from Kul Elna were used to create the Millennium Items. Then he talked about how he turned into the King of Thieves and spent the rest of his life trying to get revenge against the Pharaoh.

"When I was a child, I was exactly like you. I didn't want to be a thief back then," the Spirit said casually, as if talking about the weather. "I thought that stealing was wrong and I always felt guilty for doing it, even if it was necessary for survival. But then the massacre happened and I stopped caring about what was considered right and wrong. I stole to survive, and then I started stealing for fun. Being a thief became the essence of my identity. Later on I started killing."

Ryou hung on to every word with a deeply sorrowful look in his eyes. "I understand now. The trauma of watching your friends and family members being killed must have stripped away your sense of empathy."

The Spirit let out a low, amused chuckle.

"What's so funny?" Ryou questioned.

The Spirit waved his hand dismissively. "It's not important."

"No, tell me. I want to know."

The Spirit chuckled again. "I just find it interesting how you use the term 'stripped away,' as if my lack of empathy is a bad thing. I think 'freed' is a more accurate term."

Ryou nodded at the floor.

"You don't have to shed tears for me. I like being the way I am. There's nothing wrong with me," the Spirit said amusedly.

Keeping his head lowered, Ryou wiped the moisture from his eyes. Most people would probably react with fear after finding out that their best friend was a sociopath, but not Ryou. All he could feel was pity.

"I guess that's just what real life is like," Ryou said, finally lifting his head. His voice was confident. "There are no 'good' or 'bad' sides of a war; there are only winners and losers. And it's like what my father always says: history is written by the winners, which is why archeology is so important. Somebody has to dig up the truth so that the world can learn about the losers' side of the story."

Ryou attempted to take several steps forward, but the Spirit backed away the same distance.

"My father is very renowned in the field of archeology," Ryou continued, gradually growing more confident as he spoke. "If we tell him about what happened in your past, he'll be able to publish an article about it to tell the rest of the world, and then history will see you in a more compassionate light. And before you start laughing at me, consider this: compassion is a form of justice. History will hail you as a hero for surviving a genocide. Wouldn't you like that? It's better than revenge, because the satisfaction of revenge only lasts for a short while. History will remember you forever."

The Spirit simply stared at Ryou with a look of contempt. "You think I'm still seeking revenge after 3,000 years of being stuck inside the Ring?" he scoffed. "Justice doesn't mean anything to me anymore. I don't care about my village, or my dead family members, or the Pharaoh. I only care about myself."

Ryou was confused. "If you're not after revenge, then what's your reason for wanting to summon Zorc? What's your goal?"

"I already told you!" the Spirit growled irritatedly. "I just want to destroy the world for fun!"

Ryou furrowed his brow, deep in thought. "No…that's not it. That can't be the real reason. You just want to escape the Ring."

Something flashed in the Spirit's eyes – a brief spark of emotion that was gone as soon as it came.

"You just want to escape the Ring," Ryou repeated more confidently. "Your soul is fused with Zorc, and if you help Zorc escape the Ring, then you'll be able to escape with him. All you really want is freedom."

The Spirit didn't give a response.

"That's why you liked to trap people's souls inside figurines," Ryou realized. "You were angry about being sealed inside an inanimate object, and you wanted others to feel the same anguish that you felt."

The Spirit scowled. He loathed being psychoanalyzed in this manner.

"Come home with me," Ryou pleaded. "I'll forgive you for everything if you would just give up on summoning Zorc and come home with me. Who needs Zorc when you have  _me_? I can let you possess my body. I can give you your freedom."

"Not interested," the Spirit spat coldly.

"But I'm better than Zorc!" Ryou went on, desperation creeping into his voice. "I can cook you meals and take you on trips around the world. We can play games together and freak people out for the fun of it."

_Tempting, but not good enough,_  the Spirit thought. "If I asked you to let me possess you twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, would you allow it?" he said dully.

Ryou was taken aback. "What…? No, I can't let you have permanent control. I still need to go to school."

"See, that's the thing," the Spirit sighed, saddened but not surprised. "Sharing a body isn't the same as having one of my own. I wouldn't truly be free."

"But consider this," Ryou argued. "When you're with Zorc, you don't have any free will. He's always controlling your actions by forcing you to feel certain emotions. Even if you escape with him, you won't be the one in control. All you'd be able to do is sit inside him and watch him destroy the world. You'd still be a prisoner!"

The Spirit's eyes widened with realization. He knew in his gut that Ryou was right. All at once the truth came crashing down on him, and he began questioning himself.

"But I never force you to do anything," Ryou continued. "I let you have free will. You're freer with me than you are with Zorc."

The Spirit's face contorted into a look of fear. It was the first time Ryou had ever seen his other self show genuine vulnerability.

Ryou's eyes became filled with sorrow. "It must have been so hard for you to be trapped inside a cursed artifact with nothing but a demon for company. And you couldn't even escape by dying." He began walking forward, and this time the Spirit didn't try to back away. "Your life is connected to mine, right? Once I die of old age, you'll die along with me. Aren't you tired? If you stay with Zorc, you'll never be able to get a proper rest."

The closer Ryou walked, the more scared the Spirit looked.

"I'm offering you a choice." Ryou stopped right in front of the Spirit and deliberately stared him straight in the eyes. "You can either spend another eternity of your existence under Zorc's control, or you can share a body with me for one human lifetime. It might not be as good as having a body of your own, but it's better than having to obey the orders of a demon. I'll ask you one last time; Bakura, please come home with me."

All of a sudden, the Spirit shoved Ryou away.

_What?!_  Ryou thought. He stumbled backwards and almost fell, but he caught himself at the last moment. He felt a pang of hurt stab at his heart. Was his offer being rejected?

" _Run,"_  the Spirit whispered. His voice was strained as if in terrible pain.

"What's wrong?" Ryou said worriedly.

"Get out of here. Run." The Spirit sank down to his knees and clutched his head in agony.

Ryou tried to come closer, but the Spirit held out a hand to motion 'stop.'

"It's Zorc," the Spirit explained. "He's mad because I've begun to defy him. He's trying to make me kill you."

Ryou stood frozen in place.

"Get away from me! Go!" the Spirit shouted desperately. "Run to your friends and tell them...the Pharoah's name is Atem…" His breathing grew heavier the longer he struggled to hold himself back. "Please…go…I really don't want to hurt you…"

After a moment of hesitation, Ryou turned around and ran.


	6. Memories of the Recent Past

Yami Bakura, who was sitting at the Game Master's seat of the Memory World RPG table, threw down his game pieces and growled with anger. "You were never going to give me my freedom at all, were you? You LIED to me!" he snarled.

Never before had he been so angry in all of his existence. It was one thing when he manipulated others, but when somebody manipulated him, it meant he had been outgamed. Zorc had gamed him in the exact manner that he had gamed Ryou, and he had never felt so humiliated and ashamed.

_But I'll show you!_  Bakura thought.  _I'll show you what happens when you lie to the King of Thieves!_

Yami Yugi sat across from Bakura at the Memory World RPG table and stared at his opponent with a blank, confused expression, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Atem," Bakura said aloud. "Your name is Atem. Now hurry up and use it to finish the game!"

"How do I know this isn't a trap?" Yami Yugi said.

Bakura growled behind bared teeth. The one time he told the truth, the Pharaoh didn't believe him! In that case, he would have to stall. Plus, this would be a great opportunity to detach his own soul from that of Zorc's.

The best way to fight off a demon possession was to make himself feel positive emotions that a demon could not feel – things like love, joy, and hope. And it wasn't like he didn't have these emotions at all. He DID have them. His emotions were stunted to the point that he couldn't feel them unless he focused all of his energy into bringing them out, but if he wanted to bring them out, he could.

"It's your turn," Yami Yugi said, growing impatient.

"I'm skipping my next five turns," said Bakura.

"What?" Yami Yugi said questionably.

"Don't take my generosity for granted," Bakura said with a smirk. "However you'd better not bother me while I'm concentrating, otherwise there'll be hell to pay!"

And so, Bakura closed his eyes and began reminiscing on the few happy memories he had accumulated during the past three thousand years. Each memory lasted for one turn, and with each memory he detached his soul a little from that of Zorc's. A large number of these memories were very recent memories that involved Ryou.

* * *

**Flashback #1: Love**

One night, Ryou lay awake in bed and started thinking deep, philosophical thoughts. "Hey Spirit," he said aloud, "do you think humans are inherently good or inherently evil?"

" _What do you think?"_  the Spirit said into the mind-link. He wanted to hear Ryou's opinion before giving an answer.

"I think humans are neutral," Ryou said.

" _Neutral? You mean a blank slate?"_  the Spirit sounded surprised.

"Yeah. Morality depends on a lot of things, like society, people's choices and experiences, and so on."

" _How insightful! I was thinking the exact same thing!"_

"Really?"

" _Yeah!"_ the Spirit said excitedly.  _"Who can really draw the line between good and evil? Morality occurs on a spectrum. One would want to think that good and evil are opposites, but they're really just two sides of the same coin!"_

"Just like the two of us!" Ryou chuckled.

" _Precisely!"_

The Spirit had been prepared to indulge in whatever harebrained ideas Ryou might've come up with, but it turned out that their opinions were congruent with each other. This was why he loved having late-night conversations with Ryou. They both had unique ideas that deviated from the norm, and often times the ideas they came up with were very similar.

"I feel like people prescribe behavior too much to disposition rather than situation," Ryou said.

" _I feel the same. One would think that people like me are more naturally prone to violence, but the truth is that anyone can be violent depending on the situation. Even you,"_ the Spirit agreed.

Ryou giggled.

" _I think you should go to sleep now,"_ the Spirit said.

"Aw, already?" Ryou practically whined.

" _You have school tomorrow, remember?"_

"Alright. Hit me with it." Ryou snuggled underneath the bed covers and got comfortable.

The Spirit began suppressing Ryou's mind into a state of unconsciousness, and Ryou's breathing slowed down as he welcomed the sweet lull of sleep overcoming his senses.  _"Thanks Spirit,"_  he thought right before drifting off.

" _Your welcome. Good night,"_  the Spirit whispered softly.

That was the one of the many benefits of having a shared mind-link. Ryou's mind was filled with constant background noise, and he couldn't shut off his own thinking even if he wanted to. When left to his own devices, it would take him a couple of hours of lying awake in bed in order for him to fall asleep, for that was the side-effect of having a brain that was wired differently. But thanks to the power of the Millennium Ring, he was able to get to sleep a lot quicker.

Suppressing Ryou's mind always gave the Spirit a thrill, but what made it more pleasurable was the fact that Ryou wanted to be suppressed. Despite all of their differences, their personalities were in such perfect synch with one another that one couldn't help but feel as if they had been destined to be together. And in a way, they were. The Spirit loved Ryou with such an intensity that he could almost,  _almost_  think of the boy as a person rather than a thing to possess and dominate.

* * *

**Flashback #2: Joy**

The Spirit hated clothes-shopping. He thought it was the most boring activity in the world.

Ryou hummed a tune to himself as he sifted through the numerous coats in the clothing store. The Spirit watched on with great displeasure, wishing they could be done with it already so that they could go home and play more games.

" _Which color do you like?"_ Ryou said into the mind-link.  _"Blue? Red? Black?"_

" _Why are you asking for my opinion?"_  the Spirit said, bored out of his mind.

" _Well you see, today is the one-year anniversary of the day we first met, and I was thinking that I might get you something nice. So I want to buy something that you would like,"_  Ryou explained.

The Spirit was speechless.

" _Spirit? Hello? You still there?"_ said Ryou.

" _Black,"_  the Spirit replied.  _"I like the color black."_

And so, Ryou picked out a black trenchcoat that was suited to the Spirit's taste, and they switched places so that the Spirit could try it on.

Yami Bakura looked at himself in the mirror with a wide grin. He had on a long, flowing black trenchcoat that made him look like a villain from a movie or a TV show. It made him feel tremendous joy. He turned around over and over and gleefully looked himself up and down on all angles, drinking up the evilness of his appearance. After nearly ten minutes of looking at himself in the mirror, he relinquished control back to Ryou.

Ryou blinked, trying to reorient himself after being thrust back into control of his body. "So what do you think?" he said, accidentally talking out-loud.

" _I like this one. It's perfect,"_  the Spirit replied.  _"Thank you, Light. It's very thoughtful of you to do this."_

"It's my pleasure!" Ryou said, and he took off the trenchcoat so that he could go to the register and pay for it.

The woman behind the register was somewhat skeptical of Ryou's choice in fashion. "Are you sure you want this in black?" she said as she rang up the price. "We have the same thing in light blue. I think that would suit you better."

"Oh no, I'm not buying this for myself. It's for my…er…roommate," Ryou explained. As he finished paying and began to exit the store, he resumed talking to himself, and the woman at the register watched his retreating figure with an odd look on her face.  _What a peculiar boy,_ she thought.

* * *

**Flashback #3: Love**

Ryou was sitting at his desk, painting a figurine. The transparent figure of the Ring Spirit sat nearby in another chair, watching.

"Hey Spirit," Ryou said, "Do you ever get tired of watching me work?"

" _No, not at all. I could sit here watching you for days and I wouldn't get bored,"_  the Spirit said adoringly.

"Now, be reasonable. 'Days' has got to be an overstatement," Ryou said with a laugh.

" _I mean it,"_  the Spirit said as he eyed Ryou with childlike adoration.  _"Everything you do is beautiful."_

Ryou blushed and ducked his head. "Aw shucks…" he said. He peered up at the Spirit with his head still lowered, and the two of them made very brief eye-contact before Ryou instinctively turned away to look at the ground.

* * *

**Flashback #4: Joy**

It was a regular day at school. Yami Bakura took control and entered Ryou's classroom where he sauntered over to Ryou's friends and barked a sinister laugh. "Yugi, I'm back!" he growled in the most evil voice that he could muster.

Yugi, Jounouchi, Anzu and Honda immediately recoiled in fear. "Bakura!" they all gasped in various states of shock.

It was at that moment that Yami Bakura gave control back to his host. As soon as Ryou woke up, he saw his friends' expressions and started giggling. "Did you like the impression I just did of my evil personality?"

The gang relaxed and breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"That was very convincing," Yugi said warily.

"D-don't do that! You scared me the daylights out of me!" Jounouchi stammered, shaking from nervousness.

From the inside the Ring, the Spirit was laughing uncontrollably.  _"They fell for it! They really did!"_

" _Did you see the look on Jounouchi's face?"_  Ryou said giggling.

" _Indeed! Yugi's reaction had been priceless!"_

For the rest of the class period, Ryou and the Spirit continued to randomly break out into bouts of laughter, unable to stop thinking about the prank they had done together. They laughed and giggled to themselves like a pair of children for the rest of the entire afternoon.

* * *

**Flashback #5: Hope**

Whenever Ryou had free time on the weekends or after school, he and the Ring Spirit would play games together. They played board games the most often, as Ryou preferred those to the more competitive games. Ryou was not the competitive type, and he liked games that required cooperative play and creativity over ones that had winners and losers. However, the two of them did sometimes play Duel Monsters, and whenever they did, they would meet up inside Ryou's soulroom.

The soulroom was the only place where Ryou and the Ring Spirit could make physical contact with one another, and it was the only place where they could play Duel Monsters. They each could summon their own Duel Disks in here. They played together so often that they had become well versed with each others' strategies.

"Hold on…are you cheating?!" Ryou accused in the middle of a Duel Monsters game one evening.

"Why, what gave you that idea?" the Spirit said, batting his eyes innocently.

Ryou groaned. "Spirit, we've talked about this before! I'm not going to want to play the game with you if you cheat! You need to actually play by the rules, otherwise it isn't fun anymore!" He pushed the 'forfeit' button and began tearing off his Duel Disk. "I give up. I'm going to go do something else."

"No wait don't go!" The Spirit quickly ran up to Ryou and tugged the boy's sleeve. "C'mon, one more game! I swear I'll play fair this time!"

"I don't know…"

"Please?" the Spirit said, flashing his most charming and seductive smile.

Ryou melted on the spot. "Okay, one more game. And no cheating this time."

They began shuffling each others' decks. "Spirit, I've been meaning to ask you this for a while, but why do you laugh like that?" Ryou said while shuffling.

"Like what?" the Spirit asked, and he laughed his trademark evil laugh.

"Right there! Just like that! You sound like a stereotypical cartoon villain!"

"I do?" The Spirit laughed again, just for the sake of hearing himself laugh. "That's good. That's exactly what I want to sound like."

"You're weird," said Ryou, deadpanning.

"Well so are you," the Spirit chuckled.

"True." Ryou didn't bother to deny it.

They finished shuffling each others' decks, and soon the game was starting. They battled back and forth, occult deck vs. occult deck. They both had the same tastes in cards, which made it more fun for both of them because they never had to see a card they didn't like. In the end, the game ended in a draw.

"That was fun," the Spirit said, reaching out his hand for a handshake. In truth he had allowed the game to end in a draw, but he didn't let Ryou know that.

"Yeah, let's do this again tomorrow," Ryou said, shaking the Spirit's hand. "Do you think we can continue playing like this forever?"

"No, not forever. I need to return to the afterlife, remember?" the Spirit reminded Ryou.

"Oh yeah…almost forgot…that's pretty soon, isn't it…" Ryou's eyes suddenly glazed over as he realized something.

"I think it's almost dinnertime," the Spirit mused.

Ryou began sniffing.

"Wait a minute…are you crying?!" the Spirit said aghastedly.

Tears began streaming down Ryou's face, for he couldn't hold it in anymore.

"Stop that! Stop crying!" the Spirit snarled. He didn't understand tears, and he hated it when Ryou cried. It was like Ryou was speaking some kind of foreign language, and the Spirit couldn't understand it.

Ryou tugged at the Spirit's sleeve as if scared that his best friend would disappear right in front of his eyes. "Spirit, do you really have to leave?" Ryou whimpered.

_ARG!_  the Spirit thought. It took all of his self-control not to lose his temper. He bent down and rummaged through the cluttered floor of Ryou's soulroom, looking for a box of tissues. When he finally found it, he took a tissue and gave it to Ryou.

Ryou gratefully accepted the tissue and cleaned his face with it.

"You've known all along that I would have to leave eventually. Why are you getting so upset about it now?" the Spirit questioned.

"I didn't realize it would be so soon…" Ryou took another tissue and blew his nose. "Spirit…you know what my brain is like. I'm barely functional. I don't know if I  _can_  live independently."

"That's nothing a little bit of training can't fix!" the Spirit reassured. "You're perfectly capable of living on your own. You just need better coping strategies." The Spirit went over and put both hands on Ryou and looked the boy straight in the eyes. "Listen up because I'm only going to say this once. You are the second greatest person in the entire world!"

"Second greatest?" Ryou blinked. "Then who's number one?"

"Why, me of course. Because let's face it, no one can ever beat me in greatness. But you come at a pretty close second place!" the Spirit said with a good-natured smile.

"Okay?" Ryou said confusedly.  _What a strange way to give a compliment,_  he thought.

"You are every bit capable of living on your own as everybody else is," the Spirit continued. "And it's not like you'll be totally alone once I'm gone. You'll still have your friends and your father. And you'll have my spirit watching over you, no pun intended."

Ryou giggled.

_There we go! Laughter is better than tears!_  the Spirit thought. It was good to see that they were speaking the same language again.

"You really think I'll be fine without you?" Ryou asked.

"For the most part, yes, though I'll admit that there's still some progress to be made. For one thing, you could use some self-defense lessons," the Spirit said, looking around himself. "And the soulroom is the perfect place to learn, since you can't get permanently hurt."

"Self-defense lessons?" Ryou questioned.

The Spirit took Ryou by the hand in much the same way that a parent would lead a child by the hand. "Come," the Spirit said, "let's go to my room. It's less cluttered over there. I'll be able to teach you some self-defense more easily."

The two of them walked out of Ryou's soulroom and into the hallway. Once they were outside the Spirit's soulroom door, the Spirit let go of the Ryou's hand and opened the door.

"Stay out here for a moment," the Spirit commanded. "I need to make sure it's safe before I let you come inside. My room can be dangerous, you know." He went inside his soulroom and shut the door behind him.

A gigantic demon with two horns and a huge tail was standing in the middle of the Spirit's soulroom. The Spirit greeted the demon like an old friend.

"Hello Zorc," said the Spirit, waving casually. "I need you to go hide. The host is coming in for a visit."

"Yes, I know. I'm always listening," Zorc said. "Though I'm a bit curious. What's the point of teaching the boy self-defense when you know he is going to die in just a couple of months?"

"It's a human thing. You wouldn't understand," the Spirit said.

"Try me," Zorc said boredly.

"He's my reincarnation," the Spirit explained. "I need to take care of myself, don't I?"

"As long as it doesn't interfere with our plans, I don't care," Zorc said. Then, in a blink of an eye, he vanished into thin air.

The Spirit reopened his soulroom door. "You can come in now," he told his host.

And so from that day forward, the Spirit began teaching Ryou self-defense lessons. One might be confused as to why he would do so, since the Memory World Shadow Game was already under way, but he had his reasons.

The Spirit loved himself more than anything else in the world, and he would always put himself first, but his love for Ryou came at a close second. Ryou was a literal extension of the Spirit's soul – a twenty-first century reincarnation. And since the egotistical man loved everything that reminded him of himself, his host was by an extension an object of his own self-love.

And just in case the Spirit lost the Memory World Shadow Game and failed to open the Door of Darkness – not that there was any chance of that happening – but just in case he did, then all of his hope would be pinned on Ryou. Because Ryou and the Spirit shared the same DNA, and there was a chance that any kids Ryou might have in the future may grow up to be exactly like the Ring Spirit. And that was exactly what the Spirit wanted – he wanted Ryou to be able to survive and reproduce in order to fill the world with more people like the Ring Spirit. After all, the Spirit was the most perfect, most special, and smartest person in the entire world, and filling the world with more people like himself would make the world a more perfect place. There was a universal, biological drive to protect one's family members from harm, even among people with the darkest of hearts.

* * *

After reliving these five memories, Yami Bakura broke free from Zorc's influence.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Sociopaths often have a genius for adoring. Not all sociopaths care to use their talents so generously, and even when they do they can be possessive and fickle – devoting themselves to a relationship as long as they feel in control or benefited, but once they get bored or annoyed they're gone. Still, when we're trying, our understanding of your wants and needs matched with our charm and flexible personality means that we can and will literally become the man or woman of your dreams."
> 
> -M.E. Thomas, Confessions of a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight page 248.


	7. The Stone Slabs of the Modern World

Yami Yugi and his priests were fighting against Zorc. Unfortunately Zorc was too strong, and one by one the priests' life forces ran out until the only ones left fighting were Yami Yugi and Hasan. Luckily, Yugi, Jounouchi, Anzu, and Honda arrived at the nick of time.

"Zorc! I won't let you hurt the Other Me any more!" Yugi said.

"The 'Other Me?'" Zorc questioned. "You…you aren't from Egypt! You aren't memories from 3,000 years ago! I see…you are  _new_  memories made by the Pharaoh's spirit since awakening in the modern world."

"You jerk! We're not memories! We're the real thing! We're his friends!" Jounouchi shouted.

"No matter how many of you side with him, you will never win the Battle of Memories. You will only die along with the Pharaoh," Zorc said.

"You think so, huh?" Yugi said, summoning his Duel Disk. "Why don't you just fight us and see! I summon the Dark Magician!" He summoned it, and Mahado appeared.

"What?!" Zorc exclaimed. "The Pharaoh's guardian spirit?! But I killed it!"

"Now it's my turn! I draw!" said Jounouchi. "Red-eyes Black Dragon!"

_The Ka are sealed into those pieces of paper?!_  Zorc thought.  _Can it be…the Stone Slabs of the modern world?!"_

All of a sudden, Zorc froze like a statue. He stood where he was, not moving a muscle, and not speaking.

"Magic Blast!" Yugi shouted.

"Black Fire Bullet!" Jounouchi shouted.

KA-BLAMM! The Dark Magician and the Red-eyes Black Dragon launched their attacks against Zorc. However, it was ineffectual, and Zorc barely got hurt. However he continued to stand where he was, unmoving.

"What's going on? Why'd he freeze?" Jounouchi asked.

"It doesn't matter! Now's our chance!" Yugi said. "Magic Blast!"

"Black Fire Bullet!"

KA-BOOM! Yugi and Jounouchi launched two more attacks on Zorc, but the same thing happened as last time. Zorc was barely scraped.

"One more time!" said Yugi.

And so, Yugi and Jounouchi continued to launch attack after attack on Zorc for a total of three more turns. But no matter what they did, Zorc didn't react.

"This isn't working!" said Yugi. "We have to try something else!"

"Your mission was to find the Pharaoh's true name in the tomb," said Hasan.

"Yeah, we know!" Jonouchi shouted. "But we couldn't find it! The evil Bakura got in the way and took the good Bakura hostage!"

"He did.. what?!" Yami Yugi huffed agastedly.

"He threatened to hurt our friend! We had no choice but to leave!" Yugi said.

"Then…it's all over," Yami Yugi said, lowering his head.

All of a sudden, somebody in the distance began flying closer.

"Who's that?" Anzu said, squinting to get a better look at the newcomer.

As the figure began flying closer, more features could be seen. At first it was hard to determine whether it was the good Bakura or the evil Bakura, but once he flew close enough, everyone could see that it was Ryou.

"It's him!" Jounouchi exclaimed.

"Ryou!" Anzu shouted happily.

"He did it! He escaped!" Yugi said.

Ryou flew down and landed in front of his friends. Yugi, Jounouchi, Honda, and Anzu immediately began patting Ryou on the back and taking a close look at him to make sure he wasn't hurt.

"Are you alright? He didn't hurt you in any way, did he?" Anzu said.

"I'm fine," Ryou said. "But nevermind that now. I figured out the Pharaoh's lost name!"

"Way to go, Bakura!" Yugi, Jounouchi, Honda, and Anzu cheered.

"But I can't tell you guys what it is just yet," Ryou said apologetically.

"What!?" Yugi, Jounouchi, Honda and Anzu said in unison.

"Are you serious, Bakura?! The world is about to end! If you don't tell us his name right now, we're all gonna die!" Honda said disbelievingly.

"But if we kill Zorc now, my Yami is going to die!" Ryou said. "We need to give him time to break free from Zorc's influence!"

Yugi, Jounouchi, Anzu, and Honda let out a collective gasp of shock and disbelief.  _This has to be more than just Stockholm's syndrome_ , they thought.  _This must be brainwashing._

"Why are you still defending him? Did he put you under some kind of evil spell?" Jounouchi said agastedly.

"He's not evil, he's just mentally ill," said Ryou. "There was a traumatic event in his childhood that caused him to develop antisocial personality disorder."

"What the heck is antisocial personality disorder?" said Jounouchi.

"He's sociopathic," Ryou clarified. "His home was massacred when he was little, and as a result his mind detached itself from empathy in order to protect him from emotional pain. To be fair, it was the only way for him to survive."

"Cut the bullcrap, Ryou! Are you saying it's okay for him to be a criminal just because he had a traumatic childhood?" Jounouchi said. "We've all had tough pasts of our own, and none of us grew up to be killers! Don't be such a villain apologist!"

"Jounouchi's right! A tragic backstory is not a justification for being a jerk!" Honda said.

"T-that's not what I meant!" Ryou quickly backtracked. "I'm not at all saying that we should tolerate his bad behavior! Tragic backstory or not, his crimes are inexcusable and he needs to be held accountable for his actions the same as everyone else! What I'm trying to argue for is that there are better ways of dealing with a villain than banishing him to the Shadow Realm or outright killing him!"

"Like what?" asked Jounouchi.

"We can redeem him," said Ryou.

"Redeem him?" Jounouchi said doubtfully.

"Is that even possible?" Honda questioned.

"Of course it's possible!" Ryou beamed optimistically. "He's on the road to redemption right now! I saw it happen!"

"But you've been wrong about him so many times already. How do we know it's not another fluke?" Jounouchi said, still feeling doubtful.

"Just trust me," Ryou pleaded.

Jounouchi, Honda, and Anzu still looked doubtful, so Ryou turned towards Yugi for help.

"Please Yugi," Ryou said. "You believe me don't you?"

They were all quiet for a moment as they waited for Yugi to make a decision.

"I agree that if there's a way to defeat a villain without killing him, we should go for it," Yugi decided after a pause.

"Thank you, Yugi!" said Ryou. Then he went over and knelt down in front of Yami Yugi, who was still kneeling on the ground. "I'm going to tell you your name now, but you have to promise not to use it until after Zorc starts moving again." Ryou leaned closer to Yami Yugi's ear and whispered the name. Then he stood up and waited.

They didn't have to wait long. Within seconds after Ryou whispered the name, Zorc began to move. "My Shadow Power will shatter your dreams!" Zorc said. "You fear of death…your pathetic attempts to save your lives…they end now! ZORC INFERNO!"

All of a sudden, Yami Yugi saw a vision of his father. " _My son, justice is in the name of the Gods!_  his father said.  _The Pharaoh is the living embodiment of the Gods. Unite the three hidden Gods in the name of the king!"_  The words brought strength to Yami Yugi's heart, and he knew deep in his gut that the name that Ryou told him was the real one.

"The seal has been broken! At last I know my own name!" Yami Yugi shouted, standing up and facing Zorc with dignity. "My name is Atem!"

As soon as Atem shouted his name, Zorc's inferno attack got swallowed by the light and disappeared. The three God Cards came flying from Yugi's deck and floated in the air. Three beams of light came out of the three God Cards and flew up into the sky.

"Now Zorc! This is the power of unity! With my friends I can call forth the Gods!" Atem said. "Gaze upon the three Gods! Ra, God of the Sun! Osiris, God of the Heavens! Obelisk, God of the Earth! And in the name of the king, I unite the Gods into…the Creator God of Light, Horakhty!"

The three Gods appeared and then transformed together into Horakhty.

"Zorc, Lord of Shadow! I banish you from this world!" Atem shouted. "Sublime Light! Djeseru!"

Horakhty unleashed a beam of light from her hands, and Zorc screamed out in pain as the light tore him apart from the inside out.

All of the people on the ground began to cheer. "Whoa! She beat Zorc!" they said.

All of Atem's friends quickly crowded around him to congratulate him.

"You did it, Yugi!" Jounouchi cheered.

"That Zorc thing had me scared for a while, but I know you could beat him, Yugi!" Honda said.

"Way to go, Yugi!" Ryou said happily.

"Are you okay Yugi? You look hurt," Anzu said.

Suddenly everybody was quiet when they realized something.

"Oh yeah, you're not 'Yugi!' You got your own name now," Jounouchi said.

"I can't call you 'Other Me' anymore, can I," Yugi said.

"H-hey…it's okay. I don't mind," Atem said. "You don't need to call me…"

"No, you're Atem," Anzu said firmly. "That's your real name."

"What did you expect, Yu – I mean Atem? We'll always be friends, no matter where you go or what your name is!" Jounouchi said.

"Even if your name changed, it doesn't make things any different!" Yugi agreed.

All of a sudden, the ground started to rumble. An earthquake seared through the ground, and pieces of the Earth fell into the abyss below.

"Great Pharaoh! Even though Zorc is dead, the Earth still shakes!" one of the guards said. "This area is still dangerous!"

"Partner, friends, I don't know what's going to happen to this world. You can't stay here!" Atem said. "You don't belong in Ancient Egypt! There must be a way for you to get out of here!"

"But you have to come with us!" Yugi said.

"No. This is the World of my Memories. I have to see this world through to its future," Atem said. "Don't be afraid! I'll come back to all of you, no matter what it takes! Go back and wait for me in the real world!"

"We gotcha, Atem! You better come back to us, all right?" Jounouchi said.

"Yes! I promise!" said Atem.

"C'mon, let's get out of here!" Jounouchi said.

Yugi, Jounouchi, Honda, Anzu, and Ryou jumped up into the air and began flying away towards the pyramid that was floating in the sky. There they entered the door to the real world.

* * *

After waking up in the real world, Ryou found himself seated in front of the diorama of Ancient Egypt that he had been working so hard on for the past several months. The buildings were crumbled, and the Earth was jagged as if a gigantic Earthquake had run through it.

"Oh great. The exhibit opens tomorrow. What am I going to tell my father?" Ryou moaned, burying his face in his hands.

" _It's not destroyed. Not really,"_ said a familiar voice.

" _Spirit?"_ Ryou said into the mind-link.

" _Yes, it's me host. I'm right here,"_ the Spirit said.

Ryou reached out and picked up the Millennium Ring, which had been lying in the sand of the Memory World RPG table. It must have been blown off his neck when Zorc was defeated. He used Millennium Magic to repair the rope and then put it back around his neck. While he was doing this, Yugi, Jounouchi, Honda, and Anzu appeared at the other side of the diorama table where they waited for Atem to come back.

" _Welcome home, Spirit,"_  Ryou said with a small smile. Then he frowned as he remembered the state of his diorama.  _"You tricked me into building you an RPG table for a Shadow Game. That wasn't very nice,"_  he said disapprovingly.

" _It's your fault for being so gullible!"_  the Spirit replied.

Ryou groaned.  _"Spirit, you've got to stop doing things like this. Someday you're going to run out of second chances."_

" _But you've always forgiven me before, haven't you?"_  the Spirit said in a good-natured tone.

" _True, but even I have my limits."_

Ryou began picking up the cards, hourglasses, and game pieces that had been scattered about the area in front of him. He neatly organized them into a pile at the edge of the table.

" _Why did you have to go and use my diorama for the Shadow Game? Now it's destroyed and I can't show it to my father anymore!"_  Ryou lamented.

" _It's not destroyed, it's just been altered,"_  the Spirit said.  _"If you leave it alone for the night, history will continue to replay itself until it resembles Egypt in modern times. Just tell your father that it's a diorama of modern Egypt and you'll be fine."_

" _Really?"_  Ryou's eyes brightened. _"In that case, no harm done. All is forgiven."_

At that moment, a beam of light shown upon Yugi, and he closed his eyes as the magic overtook his senses. When he opened his eyes again, they were the sharper eyes that belonged to Atem. Jounouchi, Anzu, and Honda noticed and began to cheer.

"Atem!" Jonouchi exclaimed.

"You made it back!" Anzu said happily.

"You bet!" Atem said as he greeted everybody.

" _Welcome back, Atem!"_  Yugi said into the mind-link.

" _Partner!"_  Atem greeted. Then he reached out and picked up the Millennium Puzzle, which was lying in the sand of the RPG table, and put it back on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: the reason that Zorc stopped moving is because Yami Bakura skipped 5 turns.
> 
> Only 3 chapters left to go. Stay tuned!


	8. Two Sides of a Coin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "A sociopath will never put you above himself, but if you're worth it to him he will readily put you above all others."  
> – M.E. Thomas

When Ryou went home that evening, he began asking the Ring Spirit a bunch of questions that one would want to ask when meeting a sociopath for the first time. Even when his soul wasn't fused with that of Zorc's, the Ring Spirit still had antisocial personality disorder, and Ryou needed to know exactly what he was dealing with in order to live with his Dark Personality from now on.

"Do you ever cry?" Ryou asked.

" _I only cry when I'm faking it in order to manipulate somebody,"_  the Spirit said bluntly.

"Can you love?"

" _Of course I can love! I love in a way that puts neurotypicals to shame. I love_ you _, don't I?"_

"Now, please be honest. Do you actually love me, or are you just saying that to manipulate me?"

" _I love you as my property,"_  the Spirit offered the honest truth.

"That's it!? Just your property!? I'm never going to mean anything more than that?"

" _Hey don't be so judgmental! Just because I can't love the same way that 'normal' people love doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it. I just perceive the world differently, that's all."_

Ryou mulled it over in his head for a few moments. "Okay, I get your point." He paused before asking the next question. "Was any of our friendship from before even real?"

" _It depends on what your definition of a 'real' friendship is. Do friends hurt, manipulate, and betray each other?"_

"They're not supposed to, no."

" _Do friends play games and eat meals together? Do friends buy each other gifts and teach each other life lessons?"_

"I would believe so, yes."

" _Then to answer your question, yes, half of our friendship from before was real."_

"Half of it, huh?" Ryou smiled softly at that. Then he tensed as he asked another question. "Would you miss me if I disappeared?"

" _Do you want me to sugarcoat the answer?"_

"No, don't sugarcoat it. I want to know the full truth, even if it hurts."

" _The short answer would be yes, I would miss you, but I'd get over it quickly. I'd mostly just be happy to be rid of you so that I could have your body to myself."_

"S-so cruel," Ryou was hurt.

" _See this is why you shouldn't ask questions to things you don't want to know the answer to! Do you want me to tell you the truth, or do you want me to lie in order to spare your feelings? I don't even completely understand why you're hurt by it. I wouldn't care if you didn't mourn for me if I died."_

"But what if, hypothetically, somebody were to steal my soul away? Would you want to steal me back?"

" _It would depend on how much effort it would take to do so, but in most circumstances I would say yes, I'd try to steal you back because I'd miss the privileges of our friendship that you provide for me. I'd miss your art and your writing, your food and the conversations we have with one another. For one thing, you are the only person I've ever met who is open-minded and intelligent enough for me to have these high-quality conversations with, so you are irreplaceable to me in some ways, if that's any consolation."_

"I see," Ryou nodded. "Well, I appreciate how honest you've been with me today."

Afterwards, Ryou went on the Internet and began studying antisocial personality disorder, including the symptoms and treatments. The results were unsurprising.

The symptoms of antisocial personality disorder included:

-Megalomania

-Manipulative behavior

-Superficial charms and glibness

-A lack of remorse and empathy

-Having a reckless disregard for their safety or the safety of others

-Being impulsive or incapable of planning ahead

-Poor judgment and failure to learn by experience

-Repeatedly breaking the law

-Untruthfulness and insincerity

-Irritability

-Self-harm and seduction (more common for sociopathic women)

-And more.

Needless to say, the Ring Spirit had most if not all of the symptoms.

The only known treatments for the disorder were therapy and medication, neither of which was a viable option for them. The problem was the Ring Spirit didn't have his own body, and taking him to therapy would require telling the therapist about the existence of magic. And medication was out of the question because anything drugs they put into Yami Bakura would also affect Ryou, since they shared the same body. And besides, it wasn't as if medication was going to be much help. Whenever sociopaths were given antidepressants, all it did was make them less aggressive and more charming, and the Ring Spirit already was excessively charming.

Luckily, however, the Spirit was a high-functioning type of sociopath who had decent life skills and relatively good control over his destructive impulses. Managing a relationship with him shouldn't be  _that_  difficult, right? Ryou went on searching for information on how to manage a positive relationship with a sociopath. The search results were pretty grim. Most of the Internet seemed to think that sociopaths were pure evil and that it was impossible to live with them without being a victim of abuse. Even the high-quality search results tended to have a negative bias.

"Stay away from them," the Internet said. "Don't let them ensnare you, don't let them entrap you, don't fall for their tricks, and do not join the game."

There were a few websites that had some good things to say about sociopaths. For one thing, some high-functioning sociopaths made really good leaders or CEOs. And some websites confirmed that there existed healthy, nonviolent sociopaths who did choose to live 'normal' noncriminal lives. But for the most part, the Internet wasn't much help at all.

All mental illnesses were over-stigmatized and over-criminalized to some degree, but antisocial personality disorder had an extremely notorious reputation for being one of the most destructive and difficult to treat. What complicated the matter even further was that many noncriminal, successfully socialized sociopaths did not care about being accepted, and were instead content with living behind a mask for their whole lives. People who got officially diagnosed with ASPD were usually the low-functioning, violent ones with poor control over their destructive impulses – in other words, the ones who were easily caught and sent to jail. As a result, public views regarding sociopaths were severely skewed with a negative bias.

Was it possible to maintain a long-term relationship with a sociopath without being a victim of abuse? Yes, yes it was possible, but it sure as heck wasn't going to be easy.

* * *

The next day at school, Ryou wore the Millennium Ring on the outside of his clothes. He talked to Yugi, Jounouchi, Anzu, and Honda and explained to them the symptoms of antisocial personality disorder, telling them the truth about the Ring Spirit's mental condition.

"He only made friends with me in the first place because he needed me for my body," Ryou was explaining to everybody. "I allowed him to possess me because he promised me friendship, and he allowed Zorc to possess him because Zorc promised him freedom. As it turns out, we were both being deceived."

"So what actually happened at Battle City? He wasn't actually just trying to save Yugi, was he?" Jounouchi asked.

"He technically  _was_  trying to save Yugi, but it was only because he needed Yugi alive in order to summon Zorc later on," Ryou explained. "He hurt my arm and helped Marik gain your trust in order to gain control of your minds. But he did a lot of good things too, like helping me reconnect with my father and allowing Atem to win the Shadow Game. He's technically not evil, though he can never truly be considered good either. He's morally neutral."

"Having a mental disorder still doesn't excuse all of the evil things he did," Jounouchi pointed out.

"Yes, I know," Ryou said. "But he's willing to learn how to be less antisocial if it means it'll lead to his own happiness. And now that I know exactly who and what he is, I can learn how to manage him better. He has ASPD, which means he can't feel guilty for anything that he did, but with the right kind of treatments and interventions, I can tame him into being a better person."

"Before meeting you, I'd never thought I'd extend my sympathy towards the villains, but you've changed a lot of the way I think about things," Yugi said. "Bakura, you have a lot of unconventional ideas that none of us ever would've thought up of. We should listen to your ideas more often."

"Thank you," Ryou said with a wide grin. "Now, I'm going to let my Other Self come out now, and I want you all to try to get along with him.

" _And you too,"_ Ryou said into the mind-link.  _"I want you to try to get along with everybody."_

And so, Ryou went into the Ring and allowed the Spirit to take control. This time when the Spirit took over, Ryou was still awake to see what was happening.

When Yami Bakura first opened his eyes, Jounouchi, Honda, and Anzu were silent as they waited for something to happen. It was difficult for them to let go of their first impressions. But then Yugi waved and said a cheerful, "Hello, Bakura!"

"Hello Yugi!" Bakura said in an equally cheerful and polite manner, as if they hadn't just been enemies yesterday.

"How are you? Yugi said.

"Pretty good. How about you?" Bakura said.

"I've been great!"

Jounouchi, Anzu, and Honda watched on with wary looks in their eyes. Bakura turned towards them and flashed them his charming smile. They flinched.

"Hello Jounouchi, Honda Anzu, it's nice to meet you," Bakura said, extending his hand for a handshake.

_Ugh, is he serious?_  Honda thought.

_This guy's creepy when he's acting nice!_  Jounouchi thought.

Anzu tentatively reached out and shook Bakura's hand. "L-likewise," she said with a slight stammer.

"I do apologize for my behavior towards all of you," Bakura said with his hand still outstretched. "I know this is long overdue, but I hope we can be friends from now on."

Jounouchi and Honda exchanged a knowing look with one another.

"Alright, we can be friends," Jounouchi said, and he reached out and shook Bakura's hand.

The tension in the room was awkward at first, but Bakura had a penchant for putting people at ease. Like a sweet-talking politician, he was skillful at getting people to relax around him.

"You should've seen the looks on your faces yesterday when I got into my villain mode!" Bakura laughed. "You guys were really freaked out, you were!"

"Hey! That was because I was in the moment!" Jounouchi said indignantly.

"I really make a convincing villain, don't I?" Bakura smirked. "Tell me, out of everyone the Pharaoh's faced, who's his favorite?"

"You certainly make the top of the list as being one of the most diabolical," Yugi said in good humor.

As Bakura already knew everyone's personalities, he knew exactly how to act in order to get onto their good sides. Within ten minutes of socializing, he managed to sweet-talk everyone into forgiving him for everything he'd ever done, and now he was laughing and joking along with everyone as an integrated member of their social circle. His manners were perfect, and he held himself with an irresistible gentlemanly elegance. When he spoke, his voice was laced with a sweet exotic accent. It was very easy to forget that this was the same dangerous criminal who had almost caused the entire world's destruction.

Then something strange happened when Bakura interacted with Anzu. Unfortunately for her, this was the type of boy that she was the most attracted to.

"Hello Anzu, it's nice to get to know you in the proper way," Bakura said with a charismatic smile. "I think we started off on the wrong foot. Let's start over, shall we?"

_He's exactly like Atem!_  Anzu thought to herself.  _No, it's worse than that. He's more attractive than Atem!_

Her heart was fluttering the same way that it did for Atem. It made her feel terribly conflicted. She was supposed to only have feelings for one person, and it was already bad enough that she had crushes on both of the Yugis. Add a third crush to the mix, and she didn't know what to do anymore. Were any of her feelings even real?

Ryou saw what was happening and grew alarmed. _"Spirit, please stop flirting with Anzu! She's supposed to be Yugi's love interest, not ours!"_

" _I'm not flirting with her! This is literally just how I function!"_  said Yami Bakura.

" _But you really ought to tone down the charms a little."_

" _You're the one who wanted me to get along with everybody! Would you prefer that I acted rudely towards her?"_

Afterwards, Bakura tried to act slightly less charming when he was around Anzu, but it was already too late. Anzu had developed a crush on Bakura the same way she had developed a crush on Atem. And who could blame her? It just goes to show that one should never underestimate a sociopath's ability to charm his way into people's hearts.


	9. The Sociopath and the Aspie

A week passed, and Ryou continued to encourage the Ring Spirit to socialize with Yugi and the rest of the gang. The more friends the Spirit made, the less likely he would want to do something antisocial like trying to destroy the world again. That was what Ryou was hoping for, though he knew it wasn't guaranteed to work.

Anzu eventually realized that even though the Ring Spirit was exactly like Atem on the outside, on the inside he was empty. The Spirit's charms and good-natured disposition was only a mask that he wore on the surface in order to hide the empty black void inside his heart. When choosing a romantic partner, it was better to look for someone more compassionate. Therefore Anzu quickly got over her crush on Yami Bakura and went back to fantasizing about Yugi and Atem.

One morning, one of Ryou's fangirls approached Yami Bakura while he was in control of the body. "Bakura," she said shyly, "I m-made an extra lunch today and I thought you'd like to have it." In her arms she held a bento box wrapped up with ribbon.

Yami Bakura accepted the gift without a second thought. "Thank you, I will treasure it," he said, because he knew it was what he was  _supposed_  to say when accepting a gift.

The fangirl blushed. She felt her heart pounding in her chest. Was it just her, or was her charming bishounen senpai even more charming and bishouneny than usual today? It was making her heart go  _doki doki._  She quickly scrambled away to tell the other fangirls what had happened, squealing with delight as she left.

Ryou saw what happened and was disconcerted.  _"Spirit, what have you done?!"_ he said into the mind-link.

" _What?! What did I do wrong this time?"_ said Yami Bakura. He had been polite, and he had said the words "thank you." What else was he supposed to do?

" _You're not supposed to accept gifts from strangers!"_  said Ryou.

" _Why not? She's technically not a stranger. She stalks you every day. Plus, it was freely given, and she seemed pretty happy that I accepted it."_

" _It's just not proper etiquette,"_ Ryou groaned.  _"Next time, let_ me _handle the fangirls."_

" _Okay,"_  Bakura said confusedly. He didn't understand what his host was so upset about. Why wasn't he allowed to accept gifts? It just didn't make sense. He just couldn't wrap his head around what he had done wrong.

"Hey Bakura, can I talk to you for a second?" Yugi said, suddenly appearing behind Bakura.

"Are you talking to me or my host?" Yami Bakura said.

"You," Yugi replied. "You said before that you wanted to go to the afterlife. Was that the truth or was it just another lie?"

"It was a lie," Bakura said bluntly. "I only just managed to get a body and make some friends. I should be allowed to have my fun on Earth a little longer before I leave."

"I see," Yugi nodded nonjudgmentally. Then he turned around and walked away.

_What was that all about?_  both Ryou and the Spirit wondered.

A few days later, Atem took control of Yugi's body and announced to the entire gang that he was deciding not to go to the afterlife for the time being. It wasn't that he was going to stay on Earth forever – they were just going to postpone the Pharaoh's last trial for the time being.

"I've only just managed to get a body and make some friends. I want to have a little bit of fun on Earth before I leave," Atem explained to everyone.

"Awright! I knew you couldn't stand the thought of leaving us behind!" Jounouchi grinned.

"We'll always be friends forever, right Atem?" Honda said.

"Atem…I knew you wouldn't leave us," Anzu said with tears of joy.

Atem then shot Ryou a serious look, and Ryou and the Spirit instantly understood the real reason why the Pharaoh was staying. It was because Atem did not trust the Ring Spirit.

Not all sociopaths kill people, but this particular individual actually  _had_  killed people in the past, and there was a high chance that he would want to do it again if somebody angered him badly enough, or if somebody got in the way of something that he wanted. Even though the Spirit had made a lot of progress in terms of becoming a better person, the darkness in his heart would never truly fade away. In order for him to be allowed to continue living on Earth, somebody had to act as a law-enforcement officer in order to put a check on the Spirit's behavior and make sure that he didn't commit any more crimes. And the only person with enough power to do so was the Pharaoh.

" _Aw, how sweet. The Pharaoh is staying because of me?"_  the Spirit said in a tone of endearment.

" _He's not staying because he likes you. It's the opposite,"_  Ryou said, rolling his eyes.

The Spirit merely laughed. He didn't care if the impact he made on people was positive or negative. As long as he made an impact, it made him feel special and important.

* * *

One evening, Ryou was in his soulroom, filling up a medium-sized box with various toys and other belongings that he had once adored during his childhood. Once the box was filled, he carried it out of his soulroom and went across the hallway to the Spirit's door. He knocked a few times, but there was no answer, so he decided to let himself in.

The Spirit's soulroom was as empty as ever. The sky was a pitch black void of nothingness, and the ground was nothing but an endless desert of sand. It was a very dim room, as dark as the nighttime desert. Ryou was just about to drop the box on the floor and leave when all of a sudden he heard somebody behind him.

"Ahem," the Spirit said, arms crossed and scowling.

"Oh hey!" Ryou turned around and cheerfully waved at the Spirit with a wide grin. "There you are! I knocked but you didn't answer so I just decided to come in."

"You should've knocked louder," the Spirit said, unamused. "What are you doing in here?"

"Here, take this!" Ryou said as he handed over his box of items. "It's a gift from me to you!"

"A gift you say?" The Spirit's eyes softened as he accepted the box. He loved gifts, and it didn't matter if he had no use for whatever Ryou was giving him. He just liked getting free stuff. It was the same as stealing, except less illegal.

"Yeah!" Ryou beamed. "I figured that since my soulroom is so cluttered, and yours is so empty, that I should start transferring some of the stuff from my room into yours. That way we both benefit!"

"Hmm, not a bad idea," the Spirit said, playing along for the fun of it.

"If we keep doing this every day, your personality disorder will be cured in no time!"

The Spirit's attitude suddenly turned hostile. "I change my mind. I don't want your junk. Take you box and get out of here."

"What? Why?"

The Spirit thrust the box back into Ryou's hands and grabbed the boy's arms, forcibly pushing Ryou out of the soulroom and back into the hallway. Unfortunately the Spirit's grip was too tight and Ryou began howling in pain.

"Ow ow ow that hurts! Stop it! You're hurting me!" Ryou shrieked, and he dropped his box on the floor of the hallway.

The Spirit let go once it registered in his head that he was being too forceful. He hadn't actually meant to hurt Ryou. The aggressiveness had been accidental.

Ryou continued to stand where he was, glaring at the Spirit angrily.

_What's going on? Why's he mad at me?_  the Spirit thought. And then he realized it.  _Oh right, I forgot, I'm supposed to apologize to him after hurting him._

"Sorry," the Spirit said robotically. He didn't actually feel any guilt, but he apologized anyway because it was part of the rules of the game.

Ryou knew that the Spirit's apology was insincere but forgave him anyway. "That's okay, but why won't you accept my gift?

"I don't want to be 'cured!'" the Spirit snarled. "I'm not 'ill' or 'broken' or anything like that! I just have different thought processes! How would you feel if somebody tried to cure  _your_  disorder?"

"Oh!" Ryou understood immediately. "Okay, maybe 'cured' isn't the right term to use. I don't want to 'cure' you; I just want to sensitize you. Because if you can be sensitized into liking art and literature, then you can be sensitized into caring about the needs of others."

"Why should I want to do such a thing?"

"Because think of how much happier we'd be if we were more like the Yugis!"

"We're not  _that_  different from the Yugis. Not really. Not by much. We love and respect each other, so what's the issue?"

"The issue is, we don't trust each other. We may get along fine right now, but the mistrust is going to destroy us in the long run. I understand that you were a homeless, friendless child living on the streets of ancient Egypt, and the only way to survive that kind of childhood is to be highly sociopathic. However, the type of behavior that helped you survive back then is going to work against you in modern-day Japan. I care about your happiness, and I want to help make sure that all of your needs are met, as long as they're met in a way that doesn't involve hurting people or sacrificing my needs. But I can't be of any help to you if you don't trust me, or if I can't trust you. Ideally we would want to trust each other eighty-percent of the time."

"Eighty-percent is a lot to ask for," the Spirit said.

"Alright then let's shoot for sixty!" Ryou was desperately scrambling for the right thing to say. "Don't you get tired of having to hide things from me all the time? Wouldn't you like to take off the mask and step into the light?"

"Alright, I agree," the Spirit conceded.

"You agree with which part?" asked Ryou.

"All of them. And I'll actively try to learn how to care about other peoples' needs."

Ryou's eyes widened in surprise. "Really? That easily?"

"Why are you so surprised?"

"It's just...there's no catch? No double-meanings or hidden motives?"

The Spirit rolled his eyes and said, "Cut me some slack, Light. I'm not unreasonable. And I want our relationship to work out just as much as you do." It wasn't like he had much of a choice anyway. His only options were to either get along with Ryou or be stuck in the Ring all alone again, and the truth was that sociopaths hated being left alone just as much as everyone else did. The need for human interaction was a basic human need, and anyone forced into isolation for too long was doomed to fall into insanity.

Ryou simply stared.

"We're supposed to start building trust, remember?" the Spirit said.

"Oh...right." Ryou nodded. Feeling satisfied with the outcome of the conversation, he began to pick up his box of belongings. But before he could do so, the Spirit grabbed Ryou's left hand.

"Eh?" Ryou startled.

Wordlessly, the Spirit got down on his knees and kneeled in front of Ryou the same way that he used to kneel in front of Zorc. It was a special kneeling position, the way that an ancient Egyptian king would kneel in front of a deity. He brought Ryou's hand to his lips, kissing the boy's fingertips as a sign of eternal loyalty. The light from Ryou's room shone on the Spirit's face, and for a moment the normally evil-looking man appeared almost angelic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Many of the people dearest to me are extreme empaths, individuals who – with full knowledge of the tiny blackness of my heart – cannot help but place their soft, fragile hearts in my care. I reciprocate with my own brand of acceptance and devotion. I've learned how to do the things that constitute being generous and kind. It's the ones I love most who are able to see how hard I try."
> 
> – M.E. Thomas, Confessions of a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight page 249.


	10. Thick as Thieves

A month had passed since the Memory World Shadow Game. It was the weekend, and Ryou was in his bedroom playing a board game with the Ring Spirit. While they were playing, they began having an animated conversation about how "normal" people were weird.

"And then they just left without another word!" Ryou was saying. "Why don't neurotypicals ever just say what they actually mean? They don't even tell me what I did wrong. They just leave. Why do they have to make things so much harder than it has to be? They expect me to read their minds, and it's completely unreasonable!"

" _They take their sense of empathy for granted,"_  the Spirit said.  _"They're in the majority, so they get to decide what's normal and what's abnormal. They get to dictate what's "right" and "wrong," and then they're surprised when things don't fall into their respective categories. And they think_ we're _the ones who are mentally ill?"_

"I feel like you and I are the only two normal people in the entire world. Everybody else is incredibly weird."

" _Not to mention delusional,"_  the Spirit agreed.  _"Take your friends for instance. They're so self-righteous! They think that just because the Pharaoh is the designated hero, everything they do is in the name of good."_

"Self-righteous?" Ryou paused to think about it, and as much as he hated to admit it, he was inclined to agree. "They mean well though. I know they can be a bit self-righteous, but they mean well."

The doorbell rang. Ryou went to answer it, and it turned out to be Marik.

"Here," Marik said, handing Ryou a stack of papers. "My sister wanted me to give these to your father."

"Thanks. I'll make sure to get these to him," Ryou said, taking the papers.

Marik stared at the Millennium Ring hanging from Ryou's neck. Ryou wore the Ring on the outside of his clothes these days, just like how Yugi wore his Puzzle.

"I can't believe you saved him," Marik blurted out.

"Who?" Ryou questioned.

"Him!" Marik pointed at the Millennium Ring. "I thought for sure you would want to get rid of him once you found out the truth!"

"You thought wrong," Ryou said with a shrug.

It had been a week since Yugi had informed the Ishtar siblings about the current situation regarding the Ring Spirit. Yugi had told them about how Zorc was defeated, but the Ring Spirit managed to survive because he separated himself from Zorc's influence. Ishizu and Rishid had been nonchalant about the Ring Spirit's redemption, but Marik still didn't trust the Spirit, given his own less-than-favorable experiences with his own antisocial Yami.

"Does he feel guilty about the things he did?" Marik asked.

"No, he's a sociopath so he doesn't have a sense of guilt," said Ryou. "However – "

"What?" Marik gaped.

"It's just how he is," Ryou struggled to explain. "He can't help how his brain functions."

"So you're just going to allow him to get away with his crimes?"

"I'm not letting him get away with anything!" Ryou signed. Why did everybody always misunderstand? "All I'm saying is that he deserves a chance to live in the light just as much as everyone else does!"

Marik rubbed a hand over his head. He couldn't believe it. Ryou had the perfect chance to live his life freely, but he chose not to. Instead he chose to save the Ring Spirit.

"You know he's probably just going to betray you all over again," Marik pointed out.

"Yes, probably," Ryou said with a shrug. "But I trust him enough to not do anything I can't forgive. After all, he needs me."  _And I need him too,_ he thought. "Speaking of which, I don't like how you handled your Dark Half. You didn't even give him a chance. You just sent him to the Shadow Realm before he could redeem himself."

"Are you kidding me?! He killed my father and tried to kill my brother! He very nearly killed me too! Not to mention you, and a couple of your friends!"

"He never asked to be created! And he just wanted freedom!" Ryou argued.

"For God's sake, Bakura, just because things happened to work out between you and you sociopathic Yami doesn't mean things will automatically work out between me and my psychopathic one!"

"Then I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree."

"Fine."

"Would you like to come in for some tea?" Ryou asked.

"Yes please," said Marik.

Ryou walked over to the kitchen table, put the stack of papers down on it, and gestured for Marik to sit. Once Marik was seated at the table, Ryou filled an electric kettle full of water and set it down to boil. Then he sat at the table across from Marik while they waited for the water to be ready.

"I still can't believe you saved him," Marik said, shaking his head. "I didn't think sociopaths were redeemable. Why should we give our sympathy to them? They don't deserve it. They lack morals and they don't contribute anything to society except reckless destruction. They're literal psychos!"

" _I object to the word 'psycho,' That's stigmatizing,"_ said the Spirit.

"Whose job is it to decide who deserves our sympathy and who doesn't deserve it?" Ryou argued. "And besides, my Yami actually does contribute positively."

"Only when it benefits him," Marik argued.

"But he does contribute," Ryou stated.

"He's a criminal," Marik reminded Ryou. "He committed a crime, so he should be punished for it. Why should it matter what his reasons were? Why should he get a pass just because of his background?"

"That's an…interesting point-of-view coming from an ex-criminal like you," Ryou mused. "Do you still feel guilty about what you did at Battle City?"

Marik lowered his head. "…I feel like I should've been punished more for my crimes."

"Oh Marik, I – "

"I don't want to talk about it."

There was a silence as neither of them spoke.

"…okay." Ryou finally said, allowing the subject to drop.

After a moment, the kettle finished boiling. Ryou got up and filled two mugs full with water and added teabags to them. "Would you like any milk or sugar?" he asked.

"Sugar but no milk," said Marik.

"Got it."

Once he finished making the tea, Ryou sat back down at the table and handed Marik his designated mug. They both drank in silence for a minute or two.

"So," Ryou said to break the silence.

"Yeah?" said Marik.

"I've been doing a lot of research, and I think I know what to do once your Dark Half comes back."

Marik stared blankly.

"Wait here for a second." Ryou left the table and went to his room, where he rummaged around his desk until he found what he was looking for. Then he ran back to the kitchen and sat back down at the table across from Marik. "Here," Ryou said, breathing heavily. He showed Marik a document he had printed out from online – one of the few documents he could find to support his belief that it really was possible to redeem a sociopath. "Psychiatrist Lee Robins studied a sample of antisocial children, and 50 percent of them grew up to be fairly normal adults. This means that if you raise your Dark Half well enough, there's a chance he'll grow up to be a non-criminal!"

"Raise him?" Marik repeated, flabbergasted. "You want me to raise him? Like the way you'd raise a child?!"

"Yeah of course!" said Ryou. "What else were you planning on doing with him when he came back? You weren't just going to try to block him out forever, were you?"

"I…" Marik looked away. "…I was actually kind of hoping that he would never come back at all."

Ryou tsked. "Hey now, that's not the kind of attitude you should have! You created him, so now you have to take responsibility for him! How long ago was it when you created him, anyway? Six years ago?"

"Seven," Marik grunted.

"So he's seven years old! He actually  _is_  a child! When you take away his Millennium Rod and Duel Disk, he's basically just a kid with conduct disorder!"

"You said there's _a chance_ that he'll grow up to be a non-criminal. Doesn't that mean he might just keep committing crimes anyway?"

"It's possible," Ryou admitted. "I'd say there's a 50 percent chance of that happening."

"50 percent, eh?" Marik grimaced.

"Hey don't worry! You won't have to do it alone! You have your siblings to help you, and Yugi, and Atem, and everyone else in the gang. And you have me and the Ring Spirit." Ryou gestured to his Ring. "The Ring Spirit is proof that if you provide a sociopath with a nurturing-enough social environment, they can become fairly high-functioning and 'normal.' He resorts to criminality if it's the only way to get what he wants, but if there's a way to get what he wants without breaking the law or hurting people, he goes that route. Maybe if your Dark Half sees how happy he'll be once he stops being antisocial, he'll want to learn how to be high-functioning!"

"That's dangerously optimistic," Marik pointed out.

"Do you have any better options, though?"

"I suppose not." Marik stood up and gave a polite bow. "Thank you for the tea. I'd better head out now." A ghost of a smile appeared on his face as he began to turn around, but before he started to leave, he picked up the piece of research about antisocial children that Ryou had shown him. "Hey can I hold on to this by the way?" Marik said, gesturing to the paper.

"Go ahead," said Ryou.

"Thank you." Marik left the place and shut the door behind him.

" _Did you see that? Did you see how he reacted to us?"_  the Spirit suddenly said.

"See what?" Ryou questioned.

" _He's…_ attracted _to us! I could very easily steal his heart if I wanted to!"_

"Steal his heart?" Ryou cocked his head in questioning. Then his face lit up as he realized something. "Oh! I understand! You want to make friends with him!"

A mischievous smirk appeared on the Spirit's transparent face.  _"Yes, that's right. I want to be_ very _good friends with him."_

"That's great! I totally support you!" Ryou said happily.

The Spirit laughed darkly. When choosing between Ryou's body and Zorc's body, the Spirit would pick the latter any day. Because who doesn't want a gigantic, super-muscular demon body that can shoot fire out of its tail? Ryou's body was much, much weaker in comparison. But on the bright side, Ryou's body was extraordinarily attractive. With a combination of his good looks, flexible personality, and superficial charms, the Spirit could probably be able to seduce all kinds of people into doing his bidding – men, women, and non-binary people alike. Gender didn't matter to him.

Bakura, King of Thieves, stealer of hearts. The Spirit liked the sound of that. Even though he wasn't allowed to steal things like souls and Yugi's Puzzle anymore, he could still be the King of Thieves because stealing hearts wasn't illegal. After all, he had stolen Ryou's heart, and Ryou had been fine with it.

Ryou went back to his bedroom and tried to pick up where they left off. "Now where were we? I think it's your move," he said.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's all. The fanfic is finished. Thanks for reading.
> 
> If you're looking for a guide on how to write a non-villain sociopathic character, try reading the book I've been quoting from – "Confessions of a Sociopath, A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight" by M.E. Thomas. Or go to SociopathWorld . com. These are pretty much the ONLY resources I could find that sheds some light on the good qualities of a sociopath's character.


End file.
